


Dollhouse

by NuttersAscend



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dark Sawada Tsunayoshi, Depressing, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Psychological Horror, Unreliable Narrator, dark characters, doll!Tsuna
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-09-27 03:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17154416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuttersAscend/pseuds/NuttersAscend
Summary: Sawada Tsunayoshi was a kid bullied til he gave up on resisting, but couldn't handle living on in pain and misery. Wallowing in grief, he looked towards a better future by giving up his identity. Unfortunately, fate had other plans and his will had been inherited by his only life-sized ball joint doll -and the new 'Sawada Tsunayoshi' had no idea that the repercussions with this trade were so darn dire...





	1. Inherit my will

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, Merry christmas. Nice to meet ya, hope you enjoy the fic.  
> I'm kinda new to the site, so I'm still feeling around the interface. Lemme know if there's something I missed or if you didn't get something. It'd be much appreciated. 
> 
> Well, onwards we go! 三ヾ(ヽ*ω*)┌┛★

There was a lone tiny figure that stared at his birthday gift, a life-sized ball joint doll. His auburn eyes stared single-mindedly at the doll, his little palms gripping at the cold texture of its own hands. His house was merry with chatter since the long-absent stranger that was his supposed father had visited the child, a week after his birthday. It was his new birthday, the child supposed as he momentarily shifted his blank eyes, brown hair swaying with the changing position, to the banners and cake followed by the confetti that littered their floor. He felt like is that confetti was dirty white, like those bandages that unraveled with his mother's admonishments with his  _clumsiness_ would make this day more routine.

He supposed this may be his new birth-day, a week from the one listed in his birth certificate. He was to enter middle school in three months and he honestly feared for his life, willing to pray for whatever deity would grant him peace. 

' _Coward'_ was one of the various nicknames that his classmates picked for him. Words that was never aimed at someone other than him. Wasn't he just so darn  _special_?

He snapped his thoughts that swirled around his life and concentrated at the porcelain doll. His dad picked it for him and the brunette glibly ignored the slight disdain aimed at him for having such a hobby. The thing is, Tsuna didn't have an interest in dolls, but in their human-like features, their porcelain skin, dainty features that were highly sought for in real humans. He was given the freedom to freely stare at them, touch them, talk to them, mess up in front of them without fear of repercussions. It was the best deal that was offered to him, one that his stingy  _friends_ never let him have the liberty to do so. Well, maybe they did let him have that, if he paid in pain.

He supposed that it wasn't their fault, it was purely his own. He was too distracted by the world and the wonders it offered that he tripped on pure air. Other times, he blocked everything it could offer him, leaving him in his headspace and mulling in circles and spirals. It left him blind to reality and sometimes he wondered if he would prefer to lose his consciousness to that illusion. But the people who lived in real life disdained his unfaithfulness to life in its true form, at least- that's what he reasoned. 

Classes were a monotonous drone that plagued him for the majority of the day, and his lack of practice and reality left his answers far from what his teachers expected of him, of them- their students. He daydreamed during his alone time, his study time and procrastinated. He daydreamed during his soporific teachers' spiels. Thus, he got his just deserts.

He was never invested in sports on in the betterment of his physical abilities. The cheers for his team, the team huddle nor the coach's motivational speeches did not touch his heart. His teammates' frustrations from losing, or irritation at his lack of effort and abilities didn't either. But, it wasn't like he didn't learn anything at all. He came to associate stuff like fists and shoes with pain, that he would flinch at their close proximity- like a  _good Pavlov's dog._

Tsuna as a wee little kid was scrawny and couldn't put any motivation he had then into good use. His hardest kick gave him recoil damage, his hardest punch was met by glares and a flash game of  _kagome kagome_. They circled him immediately when the brunette's temper peaked and he let go his fists and feet lose, firecracker crackling. It wasn't the pain that ticked them off, it was the audacity that this weak little brat tried to teach them a lesson, that it didn't know its place. The little brat ruined things for them- their fun game, their fun talks, their precious limited time.

At First, it started with shoves and Tsuna didn't learn to let it go. Then it shifted to fistfights that were blamed on Tsuna. The brunette got blamed for acting out violently-  _Violence begets Violence-_ his mother lectured him. The bruises hurt and left him tired and aching and he was grounded without any comfort. His mother was a true pacifist after all. He couldn't concentrate on his classes and his teachers unhelpfully taunted the child for not contributing his bit in class. It wasn't like he could stay at home and recover since no excuses could warrantee a break in the prefect- Hibari Kyoya's book. Not that his mother was willing to testify for his pain and Iemitsu- his apparent father- believed that boys learn with their fists.

Then, his classmates, bolstered by the implicit support of the child's own mother and their teachers, decided to jeer at the child. Tsuna had been bitter from his humiliation in class and the stinging pain from his wounds and did not cut his losses. He pounced and was beaten down instantly, fighting unfair fights and not in his full strength. He got an earful from his mom again and his mind had gotten spooked from how furious his normally calm and sweet mom had been with him. His anxious mind bolstered his hearing and he heard and amplified his bad rumors and the gossip aimed at him. In his panic, he couldn't focus on his homework or on his lessons. His feet and hands were jittery and he couldn't respond aptly in the school's forced team games. His exaggerated reactions amplified by panic invited snickers and laughter. He struggled to find a balance, a perch from his desperate flapping and fluttering around...

So he made a bad decision. He decided to minimalize and try a force shutdown. He forced his expressions to a careful neutral and tried to make it stay there. He kept to himself and didn't let anyone enter his vision and escaped to his dreams. But he was apparently appointed as the class's best source of entertainment- perhaps the class clown. He just didn't realize it. He didn't perform his duties.

He clung to his dreams and woke up late to school more and more often. Hibari wasn't fond of his new routine and made sure the other knew that. Around this time, he took to staring at dolls and mannequins in stores as a coping mechanism. He shyly tapped their fingers and brushed his own with theirs. He could enter their personal space without any strange stares from them. His classmates, on the other hand, elbowed him immediately if his skin felt their breath on him. If he was 3 paces from the school idol Sasagawa Kyoko, with her sunshine smiles, Mochida Kensuke rained his fists on him- despite being the  _kendo captain._

Tsuna remembered that eyes lingered on smooth skin and cheery smiles, so his eyes lay drunk on the sight of the dolls that embodied the ideals that his society adored. Those dolls didn't breathe on him, weren't warm to touch and he was grateful for that fact. Nana- he meant, his mother looked at him strangely. He supposed that her reaction was well warranted for- his eyes glittered at their sight, something he sealed off in company. She made a wry smile at him and bought a doll for him that day, indulging in his nonsense.

She bought the doll that his eyes shone bright gold at, an infant-sized doll at an old antique store with a weird old man that had the Cheshire cat's smile on him. He named it Amore and blinked at her confusedly when she asked if it was a girl. She gave up on him exasperatedly at his response. He collected ball joint parts, resin mixes, dust cloths, rouge and other such paint that the shopkeeper recommended to him for doll maintenance. The brunette thought that the shopkeeper recognized a sucker to sell off merchandise to, but it worked for him, so he didn't complain- he never had the right to, anyway.

He used all his allowance on dolls from then on- the allowance his mom bought for snacks, games and such; the hobbies that his peers indulged in. Tsuna figured that his hobby- that his mother deemed as creepy- was less painful than the alternative. He would have to donate his toys and snacks to his  _friends_ in the name of  _friendship, camaraderie and solidarity_ if he bought those stuff anyway. One man's trash was another's treasure, he figured, so he invested in his pretty, gorgeous dolls. His hobby was something that was hidden away and literally closeted away, so no one knew this face of him, so there was no harm. As time passed, his family grew from one Amore to his Amore, Eros, Ludus, Philia, Agape, Pragma, Philautia, Ai, Koi, Tsuki, and Liebe.

He kept his mouth shut about ruined clothes, lest his mother invested in remunerating his loss- which he did only to redesign his new clothes for his dolls. His old clothes were patched and repatched til they were held together in forming his very essence-a cracked doll or better yet, vase. It no longer had the ability to store anything worthwhile and needed to be replaced ASAP. It didn't really matter anyway, his dolls had the spotlight and he was satisfied with that as his state of living. He served and worshipped them faithfully, enamored in their gazes that met his.

By this time, the meals his mom cooked and snacks that had been forced on him, as a last-ditch method for his mother to gain a normal child, was unappetizing to him. He could only somewhat find it delicious if he had starved until the next meal. But in his endeavor to better fit his palate, his stomach got used to the starvations and his body fit to suit his current schedule- meaning he remained weak, if not weaker. That was not good for his situation. His mother just assumed he was the skinny type that couldn't put on weight, so considered his condition as normal- because the otherwise, she would have to go through hell to fix things.

On the plus side, his hands became nimble as they became used to painting resin covering on them and peeling off old covers, replacing old parts after giving them a brief kiss, his hands treating them like fragile treasures. His cheeks would grow rosy as he made them try new clothes applied makeup on them. He moved his hands to his ears as he heard his mother laughed mockingly as she described his devotion to his father as they both laughed at the hilarity of the situation. If the makeup on his dolls got smudged by his dew drops, the brunette's smile betrayed nothing, neither did the clear glass like eyes of his dolls.

Lately, not a single person's eyes flickered when they laid sight on his dusty clothes, his tinted and spotted skin that was littered in craters of purple, blue, brown, yellow and red. His mother rolled her eyes on his form, exasperatedly sighing

"Mama's not going to be with you forever, my dame-Tsuna. Oh, What am I going to do with you, my clumsy, clumsy boy?"

The _nicer_ people of his schoolmates, like Yamamoto Takeshi and Sasagawa Kyoko, looked through him or around him. Sometimes they didn't even bother with him and magically transformed him and gave him the power of invisibility. Sasagawa Ryohei, Sasagawa Kyoko's brother zipped right past him, his vision focusing on a brighter and hopeful tomorrow. It made him wonder if they were living in different universes because he could only survive with a  _bright_ today and couldn't see the future apart from the murky shadows that would entangle him. And his _love_ held the torchlight and gave him the sight to see and acknowledge the present. He wondered what were the pillars that held the boxing club's captain up and hoisted him to such sights?

"Go to the extremes and things will work out somehow! How about you actually put your everything into something for once?"

The brunette wondered absent-mindedly if being an integral part of the sports team gave meaning to life? Aside from Sasagawa-san, Yamamoto-san also seemed to be his brightest, with the spirit of competition and support from the baseball team. People wondered if the lad had a one-way staircase to the major league with his abundance of talent. They crowded him like moths to flame, which was kindled by the lad's excessive talent and cheer. The only connection that Tsuna had with the male school idol, was that they both shared the lower rung of the class's grades- with him in last and the other in second last. Speaking of academics, he wondered regardless of whether he was actually right or wrong, did the assumptions and expectations that he would fail, make his grades and results- a self-fulfilling prophecy?

"All you gotta do is just pay a bit of attention to other people. How do you expect to get anywhere with anybody if you don't even see them in the first place?"

But that generalization of his didn't really hold true, he figured. Sasagawa-san's sister held her head in the cloud and maybe saw things in the same way as his mother. His mother didn't hear his neighbors gossip about her- like how Tsuna was the result of a one night stand or that she was the mistress since his father wasn't there. Things went to a better route when he had off-handedly commented that his father mentioned that he had gone to become a star. The damsel in distress made a better drama, he thought- now that she could be painted in a the tragic light that his father went and died in a ditch and left her with a useless son to take care off. She had even less of a burden, judging by the crease of her eyebrow that he had made a distance between them by addressing them formally. Now she didn't have to associate with a literal manifestation of the plague.

The school's female idol twisted the world to her ideal, and the world was more than happy to play along to her narrative. When she spoke suggestions about the character of people, painting them in a positive light, they preened in the praise and took on that persona. Some people took those to another direction, so it wasn't a perfect technique, Tsuna mused, as Mochida Kensuke thought she fancied him and went on to court her aggressively- something he thought she didn't appreciate that much.

"Everyone has good intentions that can be misinterpreted. Why don't you give them a chance or try again until you both can reach an understanding?"

Well, not everyone looked upon him as kindly as they did. But harmless disdain that was spread to everyone, not just at one person was good enough for him too. Kurokawa Hana, Sasagawa Kyoko's friend, looked at most of the shenanigans of his male compatriots around his age like they were monkeys like they were so immature they devolved. But technically speaking, monkeys were our evolutionary cousins. She didn't appreciate those quips. She was like Adam to her friend's Eve. She didn't appreciate that analogy either. Either way, she was the weight that kept her grounded, so that her niceties and goodwill wouldn't be exploited. The lass was oriented practically, but pretty jaded when it came to people.

"You know, you would have a much easier time making friends if you were actually useful at something since people inherently make friends based on what advantage the other can provide, whether materialistically and intellectually, emotional and moral support or via social standing. Why don't you hone just one skill, any skill, regardless of its utility, so that you can be a part of a community?"

The prefect, or the leader of the disciplinary committee, a makeshift gang that let him do whatever he wanted legally (the type that bordered on downright shady with logic that was convenient for the leader...)- don't tell him that, he despises that way of thinking about it- was a teen that he thought was made completely from bloodlust and competitiveness that bloomed from the feelings of possessiveness. He changed the meaning of life to that of maintaining the hierarchy of herbivores and carnivores, and despite his seeming abhorrence to anything that broke order and his discipline, the other was hypocritically in favor of anything that put chaos into his routine. It was a dark, obsessive, twisted love that the brunette could empathize with. They were a type of acquaintance from the fact that chaos and misfortune were Tsuna's mistresses. So they met often and the brunette was caught in the crossfire. It was also the reason why Tsuna was the hospital's best customer.

"If you crowd, I'll bite you to death."

which Kusakabe, the demon of Namimori's assistant, translated (to something that was sweetened to levels Tsuna would consider diabetic and lost in translation, with how seemingly ridiculous it was)

"I think Kyo-san means that you're fine the way you are, Tsunayoshi-san. Why do you want to change?"

Tsuna didn't mind even if it were people in the neutral grounds and didn't care about him one way or the other. The strange shopkeeper that supplied dolls to him, Kawahira, the person who seemed like he had nothing in earth that could interest him- even if he had everything handed to him in a silver plate. The eccentric old man spoke in riddles and made the brunette feel like Lewis Caroll had been his acquaintance once and based the actual Cheshire cat off of him.

"You're an incomplete version of your actual self. It makes sense that you're not satisfied with the current status quota. What will you choose- Meeting your complete and total potential or see the beauty of your mysteries and imperfections?"

The mysterious Chinese man cloaked and hiding his true skin, that Tsuna dubbed as Fong, since he needed a Chinese translation of the man who was like the wind, more like a hurricane, with how calm he was, when in conversation with the brunette and how his presence faded in and out of existence in the town. They didn't meet frequently, but anyone that didn't beat him to pulp with no plausible reason was in his good books. His makeshift booth was the wingman to their meeting anyway- it made a good hiding place. If the Namimori citizens noticed the guy talking to thin air, if they ever did, it was all on him. Tsuna had a good impression of the guy for being as invisible as he was increasingly becoming.

"You say you want to change, but do you even know if the changed version of you would ever be better? Is there any person that actually has this silver spoon that you like to quip about?"

Tsuna felt like he felt bonds that could be created by commiserating with other people. It wasn't mutual, but indirect ones that tied people together with the ties of misfortunate victims- like Irie Shoichi and himself. He supposed that he put the other on a pedestal since the other was steps closer to fulfilling his dreams of being a robot, being good at machinery. It was a sentiment he was sure wasn't shared by the other, who seemed to be invested in becoming a musician despite not having the talent for it. The resignation that came with his belittlement that shadowed the redhead- from the bullying that stemmed from the other being a nerd and somewhat tone-deaf, was something that the brunette was familiar with. It felt like they were mirror images with different circumstances and he was a sham of one since he was bullied for being utterly incompetent and resigned to never forming an actual connection with a real person. It worked for Tsuna since his dolls couldn't talk back to him and let him know what they thought of him.

"What good would change bring anyway? Can you change the thoughts of what people think of you if you do? Even if you do, can you accept the thought of someone taking your place to perpetuate the cycle?"

Tsuna looked at their questions when he tried to see if he could vision a happy tomorrow blankly, unable to give a coherent answer. His dull eyes grew duller with each response, as with time he felt like the strings that were holding him up were breaking from the tension. He couldn't come in terms with his fate, but no one had a clear answer that lead to different directions. He knew the actual problem- he couldn't lift himself up and bear the burdens that came with being himself. He couldn't take responsibility for his self. He distracted himself with the things and ideas that people provided and established. He could be anything and everything, but he couldn't face himself.

Humans didn't have a hive mind. In the end, what he had was himself- but he didn't own himself either. The people around him had different fragments of himself, but they were all alien to him in the end. Even if his mirror neurons could bridge the gap to them, there was always a gap. There was an adventure and so much to explore if he wanted to explore his own existence, regardless of how pathetic he was as a being. There was even more, to explore in the world and in the universe... but he was tired.

He felt like he could collapse any moment from the tiredness that enveloped him everyday. It made him see his every day through a pinhole camera- warped, sharp and darker than it actually was. He tiptoed a carefully laid out balancing act and fatigue was weathering away on his concentration and resolve. He wondered where he was going as he felt his limit embrace him. He was a one man act and he wondered when will the curtains close?

Back to his birthday,

he lifted the doll to his room, leaving the lively atmosphere behind and looked at the brown haired doll with spiky hair. He dressed it in a bloodred dress suit and gave it a black vest with silver tinted sky blue buttons and put up black tailored pants. He put an Eldredge knotted tie on the immaculately dressed doll and finally giving it golden contact lens. he kissed its fingertips and proceeded to stare at it blankly. 

After about two hours he spoke in a clear voice-

"Hello there. I hope you'll like your new house. I thought of a name for you, I wish you'd be happy with it.

Is the name Tsuna fine?"

His lips trembled at the last line and a single tear traced his cheek. Tsuna looked at the floor during the entire conversation. His other dolls stared at him wordlessly and he felt like something knotted up in his heart as he acknowledged one of deepest, dirtiest secrets.

Then, as if hiding his shame he leaned onto the shoulder of the doll and slept peacefully and something in him snapped.

For the next two to three days, he spent the day living like a ghost- dazed and silent. There was nothing to interrupt his reverie.

With the passing hours, his mind felt heavier and heavier like something was breaking apart.

His mother thought he caught a fever and told him to get the medication from the cabinet, and went back to cooking.

He came back to the doll that he had been spending an obsessive amount of time with, trying to make it reach different heights of perfection. His mind was shrieking in desperation, searching and seeking something. He spent time giving it a human skin like texture with different materials trying to making it reach some faraway dream.

It was so close, yet so far away.

His vision darkened as he felt his breath ragged as he felt things were hopeless. The doll held all his hope and his dreams. His imagination gave it dreams, but it felt like the more he tried, the more of a gap widened between the doll and himself. 

It must be his fever that made his vision blurry.

He needed a closer look, he needed to see it and catch up to it.

He swallowed all the pills in the prescription and then felt like puking. But he couldn't allow it this time. He couldn't cater to the whims of his body. _He needed this even if his body didn't._

His physical being was always at odds with his mind anyway. He wanted this freedom.

Slowly, his vision darkened and regret consumed him like a burning inferno.

'If only I had more time. If only I was more...'

His eyes closed, with his last vision fixated at the gold eyes of  _Tsuna_

The room filled with the echo of the clacks of ball joints as the doll moved towards at his former master that doted them dearly. He struggled to lift him to drag him down the stairs of the Sawada residence. With every movement, he felt like the other, only in death got freed from whatever sealed him. It was like a fire filled him and reached every nook and cranny- encompassing his very existence- granting him life.

The other climbed up the tree with the brunette hanging over his shoulders. golden flames leaked through his eye sockets and the doll barely registered anything. He gently put Tsunayoshi on top of the roof, as he felt like visions- memories he supposed flushed into his head.

He lifted the other's head to let him see the night sky filled with stars, hoping to convey the regards he had wanted to let the child in front of him know and show.

He hoped that he could show him that even in pitch black darkness, there could be light- not just one, but multiple sources twinkling straight at anyone. They could surround him and envelope him.

He felt those flames trailed on his cheeks, leak as sparks into the air and he felt heat on his back. It was as if those flames had a will of their own, as they latched onto Tsunayoshi and the doll felt something foreign- like panic. It spread rapidly onto the brunette and wouldn't back down, even as the doll slapped the draped suit jacket rapidly over the burning figure. 

Seeing that it was hopeless, he covered over the brunette to prevent the ash from drifting with the night breeze. his golden tears did not stop and he heard himself sobbing like something was escaping into thin air. He wanted to contain everything at that moment. He didn't want to lose anything.

The master he had seen for a week or so, was rapidly deteriorating and becoming something he couldn't recognize.

His throat felt painful and his vision blurred horribly, but he wished he could see this to the end. He wondered what could he have done to make this better. To prevent this from happening.

_Dame-Tsuna had been so smaller._

He was the only witness to this, he thought as he sobbed and collected the ash into a jewelry box that he collected after draping the jacket over the remains.

His eyes glowed bright gold as he cried in grief

He'll inherit the other's will

 


	2. Hide a tree in a forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there,  
> How're ya guys doing? Thanks for the comments n the kudos n stuff.  
> Here's the next chapter, feel free to lemme know anything bout the story.  
> Now, onwards ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Tsuna stared blankly at the treasure chest finding it difficult to decide to put a lock on it. Logically speaking, if he didn't, the box might tumble down for whatever reason and he'd lose some or all of its content. But, his vision was blurry and he felt like it was hard to breathe, making it difficult to listen to that voice of reason. His mirror image was something he was so familiar with. He had seen this expression so many times on the brunette as the other would choke out words while giving them manicures and once, twice and thrice overs. The lad would ramble and hop over topics, never acknowledging his current state. He spoke about a lot of things when he was in that state -wistfully, as his voice merged with the wind, never to fall on anyone's ears.

Well, to be honest- the tears and the sound was the only thing he could recognize. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get that expression stuck on that face of his. Like it was physically locked by a mechanism. The brunette was quite a skillful in doll crafting and when Tsuna tried to mimic one of his past actions- fix an expression by his fingers- he realized that the animatronic he had been made into was given far fewer expressions than what his experiences and imagination dreamed up for him. Tsuna was quite crafted into the ideal being that the brunette envisioned.

The lad thought that the ugly expressions like grief, rage, jealousy and such did not fit into his idea of perfection- and served as limits that the doll could shapeshift into. A perfection that meant that the doll couldn't be truly human, nor truly Sawada Tsunayoshi- all because the maker couldn't accept those facets that made up his being. But Tsuna could accept that, that was not the kind of person he wanted to be. It was the shackles that his master wanted him to wear, one of the common points that they shared, even if one was worn willingly and the other was worn when he was beaten into submission.

His master didn't want the other to be as vulnerable as he'd been; he didn't want him to be as damaged as he had become. He regarded himself like an old patched up ragdoll and didn't wish that fate on Tsuna- the unblemished, untarnished version that he wanted to strive to become. He wasn't allowed to tear or be in grief, they were the remnants of Tsunayoshi's will, the parts the lad desperately wanted to lose, but couldn't. So when the doll tried to show a path to survive, the brunette cried for the last time in his life and refused to take the hand offered to him, ending in the immolation of his self. It left the doll bitter since the other forced him to take over parts that the other didn't exhibit, and didn't allow him to carry him to a better future- deeming those parts irrelevant.

Sawada Tsunayoshi had broken apart a drift- a crevice in his unconscious mind; He separated his feelings of love and banished them in the dolls and pampered them, isolating those feelings into his garden of Eden- he personified the dolls by ornating their being with names representing love. Tsuna was his magnum opus- it had his whole existence, but simultaneously, none of it. He thought that he was meant to be the bluebird, from Maurice Maeterlinck's play 'The Blue Bird'; that he signified his master's happiness and was chained close to him via the physical limitations that came with being a doll. But his master, like Tytyl and Mytyl, fed him and he was now forced to leave his cage and fly away to the heavens. His master never acknowledged their significance, perhaps he avoided trying to, fervently.

His joint movements were smooth, as the brunette used to grumble that it wouldn't make sense if dame-Tsuna had more fluid movements than he did. It was the crack of dawn, when Tsuna had finished somewhat examining himself, feeling somewhat dissatisfied that his palms didn't have the callouses and cuts, and his eyes didn't have the dark bags that indicated how hard the other worked to add those features to transform himself from a simple ball joint doll to a full-fledged animatronic.

He remembered his promise but wasn't sure if he was ready to blend in with his master's actual world. He was, after all, a frog in a well. After contemplating for a bit, he figured that things would be fine since the brunette's memories indicated that he was more or less invisible to the world and that no one could care less about him. He had plans to change that, but he had to take baby steps to fulfill many of the wishes and reduce the number of regrets that had been carelessly spoken in the brunette's safe haven.

'First, let's watch and observe'

He walked down the stairs with little effort. The body was, he thought, powered by those nefarious golden flames which could be the manifestation of Tsuna's soul. So it probably contained his essence and his ideals to start with. The doll had the memories that left impressions in the brunette. The biological and physical aspect depended on the doll's machinery. He had to make little effort to keep his balance, as there was something like an accelerometer or a gyroscope linked with motors to maintain his center of balance.

Tsuna didn't know what to do with the breakfast since he didn't have a damn digestion system that could process it. He couldn't exactly eat it since the mechanism inside him will get screwed up if he did. Cleaning up would be a damn mess. So he ignored the meal left on the table and rushed out- it wasn't relevant for a person, no doll, like him. He would need to blend his existence into his being's regular routine.

* * *

His desk was quite ruined with the smell of nail polish, paint, rouge and other makeup utilities that he could partially recognize. Other than the exciting mesh of colors it took up, it had tiny scratch marks that were tipped with blood. His vision flashed a type of fond resignation that he had when he painted and manicured the nails of Sasagawa Kyoko and Kurokawa Hana, who seemed pretty amused and chuckling at something. The brunette felt like the paint he bought specifically for his dolls were used for something other than what they were intended for, making him slightly regretful and upset. The fondness came from the joy that bubbled up when the other looked at the two's happy and intrigued faces. Tsuna wondered if he had been pressured to do that or was it the social stigma that forced the fondness to develop. The other did have the habit of faking it until you make it.

He saw the two girls observing his stillness, and gave them a tentative smile and wave, and they stiffened in shock. They seemed unused to having his undivided attention, which was strange, given how high of a pedestal his master put the both of them on. The baseball jock swiveled his head around and silently observed this supposed oddity, but Tsuna didn't understand why the other seemed to be a bit hostile towards him. Surprisingly enough, his memories didn't have any memories of the other looking at him this way.

His memories flooded his mind with what happened before when a voice laughed mockingly as they sloppily put on heavy makeup on his face when he had brought it to class. They weren't meant to be put on people- they could cause rashes and possibly even skin disease. Someone opened the door in the midst of the session and footsteps rang. His eyes had been focused on the diminished amount thinking he couldn't decorate Amore to the extent he pleased. Someone pulled up his chin and he felt his cheeks rubbed roughly as a gruff Hana pulled him up by his collar. The child didn't really know what had happened- his concentration was entirely on the decoration set.

Kyoko rushed into his line of sight, eyes focused entirely on him, inadvertently knocking over the set in her haste. He broke into a wail right then and there, while the other two misinterpreted his emotions as that of relief. They couldn't really calm him down, but Kyoko distracted him from his dilemma by complimenting him on how well his nails had been done. Well, just a few moments ago, he had been threatened with the set's safety if he didn't show off his expertise. His  _friends_  were apparently amused by the whole idea and the execution, and the brunette knew this the moment he saw the crescent moon shaped eyes that they made when they sighted the set's contents. The lass asked him if he could do it for her, bringing him her pocket makeup set which he acquiesced after getting slightly fascinated by her well-shaped nails. Hana joined in later after seeing him mid work by bringing in the drama club's makeup kit, wondering the extent of his skill. Their genuine awe had calmed him from his hysteria, and he quietly set to work and got engrossed in the art. He didn't mind if they were part of the bullies and was willing to forget about the broken makeup set. It was because he was allowed to touch a willing person's hands and see for himself what made friends smile gleefully as they pulled each other's hands to lead them to places or even share their happiness via touch.

The identity of a doll-maker had made instances like this, accessible and viable to him. Even if they didn't know that he cherished dolls. Sawada Tsunayoshi will never have that luxury. In Tsuna's mind, Namimori was a hellhole that chose him to be the sacrificial lamb. No one, not even the stickler of rules himself objected to the implicit status quo. To him, Namimori was a swamp- it reeked of stench, aimed to decompose and sink you until there was nothing left.

Tsuna reframed his relation with the two girls- they probably stuck around him since they were, apparently, his dolling-up buddies. He didn't know if they were part of the group that instigated that incident and he didn't know if the child was lonely enough to forgive any and all circumstances, but he'd rather not look at the gift horse in the mouth. The brunette never really gave a face to his bullies, but what they did to him; were clearly films that wouldn't deteriorate. It did leave the question, what were those scratches on that desk of his?

His classes were a literal droll and the brunette couldn't do anything there since the past him decided they were an utter waste of time and he didn't have any notebooks in his bag nor at his house. There wasn't even a single textbook in the residence's bookshelf and it made Tsuna wonder how did the other pass so far. His bag contained medical supplies like band-aids, bandages, antiseptic and painkillers to name a few. He felt like he should apply as the school nurse since the infirmary was apparently useless to the one who seemed like he'd need it the most.

When school ended, a couple of streets away from the school gates, Tsuna felt grabby hands haul at his collar in a vice grip as they slammed him against a wall. He didn't recognize the unruly lad's faces, but their annoyed voices made him identify them as the troublemakers that made his life harder than what it should be. They seemed mildly miffed at the self-assured expression that was fixed on the other's face since the morning, the confident steps that the other had paced about in. The brunette didn't acknowledge their existence and reduced their interferences in his life so far, into thin air. They had been estranged so suddenly, their value had plummeted in an instance. His existence in their life was something fleeting, like a piece of chewing gum on a shoe - something that mildly annoyed them, but stuck onto their conscience. It was out their orbit of normalcy, tilting it slightly and they wanted relief for the itch.

Well, too bad for them, Tsuna couldn't mirror or deeply sense their unrest or their malicious intent. His head didn't hurt from its abrupt kiss at the nearby wall, and he didn't even take it out for dinner. His eyes could see their motions quite easily and he figured he could start his revolution here and gave them a profound smile. He captured a flying fist and tightened his grip, the metal springs in his joints contracting to tensions he realized were  _very uncomfortable_ to the other. Realizing that one of their friends was in impending danger, the latter gave the brunette a panicked shove. He didn't fall over with that shove, his motors balanced the force before he made contact with the floor.

He released his grip leisurely and the boy shrunk and whined miserably at the pain and Tsuna absent-mindedly thought that those bones of his must have cracked at the pressure. The other's misty eyes glared, but widened, feeling disturbed at the unblinking and unwavering eyes. Tsuna smiled charmingly at the other

"My dear  _friends,_ you might need to find something  _else_  to put your frustrations on. It's a truly unhealthy coping mechanism; Look at how much pain you're in right now. We wouldn't this to worsen into something unspeakable, do we?"

He left the sufficiently cowed group behind, not willing to linger around these people. Tsuna may not do tit for tat, to honor his wishes... but he wouldn't passively take it all in and carry all the burden in his shoulders as the other did.

As he walked, he realized that breeze was entering his body, and his flitted to his shoulder. His shirt sagged at a particular spot and he entered an alley and popped open his shirt and realized that, in exchange for feeling the brunt of the shove, his fragile body cracked open. He paled at that, remembering that real people would bleed or even show the lower dermal layers and muscle with deep damage. He couldn't afford to get injured now since he couldn't offer a reasonable explanation for the mechanized insides if it was seen.

His master didn't make his body, a body of steel. He couldn't have predicted that  _that_ could have happened. He was ultimately a doll, regardless of how impressively it had been made. But it worked out for the other since the brunette was intended to be unblemished and indestructible. It just left the actual person in question in potentially sticky situations. He needed to fix this crack, pronto. He headed over to the antique shop since he didn't have any spare parts and worried about how would he fix himself, now that his perspective was different.

Kawahira stared at the other for a moment, before seeming sullen. The brunette offhandedly questioned his countenance, eyes tracing the shop for material to make a fix. His memories flashed over the shelves of the shop. It used to have a lot of trinkets, scrolls, books and could fit its name.

Now, many of the shelves contained doll parts, mechanical gears, and electrical components. There were even jewelry boxes and paints, many of which, he himself remembered the other gushing about as he applied them meticulously. There were even spools of threads.

His memory showed a glittering version of the merchandise that a chirpy Kawahira showed flamboyantly. The man brought out a curtained trolley and unveiled it with aplomb. Tsuna would look at them with childish glee as his mind would whirr around at the various looks that he could adorn his dolls in.

There were two plates of sweet manju with chamomile tea on the shop's counter. Kawahira didn't offer any to him, seemingly absorbed in something. It worked for Tsuna, since he wasn't sure if he could do damage control if he ingested that.

"Ah, it's just because a rather insistent visitor had been bothering me for a while. They had been giving me bouquets that I have to force myself to look after. They require a lot of work, and I don't have the energy to do so."

He hummed in response and picked up a few materials. The other seemed to have a eureka moment, as he shuffled into the back room. He emerged out with a bouquet of white lilies and Tsuna's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

"Say, could you do me a favor? Could you take this out of my hands?

I've decided to give it to them straight so that I don't have to deal with this type of thing again."

The brunette quietly stepped forward and accepted the fresh, pure white flowers. He felt like the other had urged him strongly to accept it, despite the whining, almost childish complaints that the man spoke out. He felt like, it was the grace that the other was showing for a loss that he couldn't intercept.

When he left the shop, the older man went and sat in front of the checkered mask and started giving it a once over, to give it some maintenance so that it wouldn't break apart. His head bowed down in respect as he quietly tinkered with his tools, eyes lost in memory.

Tsuna returned to the Sawada residence in silence and moved towards the jewelry box stuffed in the depths of his closet and placed the bouquet over it, not bothering about keeping it in a vase to prolong its freshness and liveliness. He moved to the makeup set and replaced the golden contacts with auburn ones and stared outside the window, after all; he no longer required sleep.


	3. There's supposed to be rainbows after rain

Yamamoto Takeshi was a guy who liked the little surprises that life popped up on you. Some people treat them like lemons and scrunch up their face at its acerbity. It was easy for information to gather around him, circling around him like vultures. He had known about rumors, more like the rants, other people let out about one dame-Tsuna. It wasn't until a fateful encounter that the boy had somewhat become a part of his life; he would argue that it was sadly, purely one-sidedly on his part.

When he was walking lackadaisically behind his energetic pals, who were racing towards the next class (loser plays gopher for their lunch in their jungle of a cafeteria- one that religiously followed Hibari's belief of the survival of the strongest, he swore) he saw a small lump shuffling around the floor's noticeboard. Then the figure stood, his spiky hair standing out like a porcupine, but unlike one with its hackles raised, the other lazily walked back to class like nothing was afront. He wondered if the other had lost one of his items there.

He was a bit curious at that point. You see, Sawada Tsunayoshi, he remembered from one of his vague and fuzzy memories seemed like the school could be courting and eloping with fire and still not care. He thought that he could come in class on a reindeer wearing a mushroom cap, but the other wouldn't notice him, let alone give a f*ck. The brunette's bullies had shoved his bento box in his face, but couldn't get a raise from him. People could really change couldn't they; this was the kid that threw fit after fit in their nursery.

Curiosity killed the cat, and he waddled over to see a camera lodged in its cranny. His head jerked at his class's door, slightly appalled that the kid was trying to take panty shots. But, a morbid curiosity wondered what would come out of it, if he let things be.

He got lost in the events of the day, and only remembered the camera at the very next day. More like, he had been forced to remember it when he saw a furious Hibari Kyoya smash it under his grip. He never thought there would be a day he felt like snickering at the prefect's expense, as the senpai only noticed it when it snapped him giving a huge swing at an idiot who tried to push his luck, almost blinding him with that bright glare. He thought the guy got pissed off that the poor dude lived to tell the tale of his wrath.

When he noticed Sawada's slightly confused glance at the missing camera, he amusedly gave the other a hint.

"You might wanna bring one without a flash next time."

The other barely responded to him, but his ears quickly became red as he began to realize the fatal flaw of his plan, and made a hasty retreat to his class. Yamamoto on the other hand, had no qualms giving a bark of laughter, something he felt came more naturally to him than it had for quite a while.

The jock had to change many of his point of views in the rest of the week. Turns out, you can really take advantage of any situation, literally any. He learned this because his classmate decided the best way to use his predicament was orchestrate the chase routes that his bullies employed to take a survey of the interiors of the school. When they end up  _cornering_ him, it would be in surprisingly convenient places, like lockers, pool benches, gymnasium storage rooms, and even the biology room. When the other left the bruised guy alone, the latter would get to work standing up, pacing around and glancing all round to comprehend the viewing angle and what could be seen from that viewpoint. Hibari-senpai had no way of chasing him off for loitering this way.

Yamamoto truly respected the extent this guy would go in the name of panties. Then, it seemed like finally, the brunette decided the best place to place his next camera, at the staircase well near the rooftop. Now that he was invested in the guy's adventures, he finally realized that the dude wasn't interested those shots, he was interested on taking face snaps- given the angle that lens were placed on. It was strange, but he could understand why. The other probably couldn't ask another person to get their photo, but it was like a candid shot and the jock was slightly peeved at letting this go untouched.

To soothe his conscience, he decided to see the first victim's photo and judge whether this was a harmless hobby or not. Weirdly enough, that one was Hibari Kyoya. Feeling confused, he decided that it would be the next victim that he would put his judge cap on for. Yet, the prefect was the only one who passed that area for the day. Sawada came back and inspected the photos carefully, but seemed unsatisfied with the result. Yamamoto placed his metaphorical judge cap on his chest in condolence. It seemed like bad luck hovered around him like a mother hen. He now had to rush outta school, since they two were going to be the last ones to stay in school and the prefect hated loiterers.

The next evening, Yamamoto had to deliver sushi and saw that this kooky brunette classmate had dumped subtlety's ass and decided to take the damn photos directly. He gave the other a slight salute and wished him success in his mission and peddled along to give customers their sushi-fix.

At homeroom, Sawada came limping to class with a black eye and he had to forcibly stop himself from giggling out right at the other's predicament. But the mirth didn't fade from his eyes for the rest of the day. That day, they had art class and feeling a sense of camaraderie, he volunteered cheerfully to be the brunette's partner. He chuckled a bit and brought up his drawing pad, facing the guy, since the teach' wanted them to do human portraits for class for the umpteenth time. That old man never seemed to get tired of it.

"You should have taken the lucky target out for dinner before taking a pic. Bet they wouldn't give you a black eye for your endeavors at least."

"More like make me kiss their tonfa. I swear he tried to make us french kiss or something." the brunette grumbled, lost in gathering the materials for doing the actual drawing.

The baseball lover's eyes grew like saucer plates.

"Wait, you were trying to get a mugshot of  _hibari senpai_?! I'm surprised he didn't try making you deep throat his tonfa for pulling that sh*t!

Why were you doing that in the first place?"

"I'm surprised elementary kids know these words in the first place-"

"Well, you haven't reached the depths of the internet, pal. And no, don't try to sidestep the question."

"I wanted to take a picture of how he looks in battle for reference purposes"

"You mean, you wanted closeup shots of carnage? I never pegged you as a fan of horror."

Then Sawada looked at him, I mean, actually  _looked_  at him. Then he looked like he returned to earth and then looked baffled, then scared, and finally tongue-tied. It was like the rapport they had going abruptly stopped and crashed. After that, no topic starter got the brunette talking. It left him a bit frustrated and he gave the brunette a cold shoulder for a week.

After that, the jock seemed to call it quits for their cold war and decided to try to fix whatever happened at that time to grow their budding friendship- only to find out that there was never one, to begin with. It was something that he had been forced to acknowledge when he saw that guy was not bothered by the cold shoulder, nor did he feel any sense of absence. It had been Yamamoto that had gotten curious, and Yamamoto who had poked his nose into the other's business.

So, he decided to focus on baseball instead, since it seemed like he could do really interesting things with them lately. But he couldn't help himself from looking at seemingly desecrate and abandoned places or blind spots that wouldn't catch people's eyes. It had, unfortunately, only been bolstered by the occasional cameras he'd spot at those locations. He couldn't stop his lips from forming an amused smile.

One time, he finally gave into temptation and picked one of them, one that the brunette had placed back into the noticeboard. It seemed that failed attempts wouldn't deter the photographer from getting his shots. It seemed to have finger marks and seemed quite old, as compared to the others in other hiding spots. This was probably the camera that the brunette carried around. With his curiosity biting him in the ass, he skipped having lunch with some friends that invited him and sat in the isolated classroom.

He booted up the camera and saw photos of Sasagawa-chan and Hana-san laughing in joy at something, another of the latter giving an almost motherly look, something of a fond resignation at the sleeping friend in front of her. There was also one with the former playfully stuffing cake in the mouth of the one bewildered Kurokawa. The next was that of Hibari-san looking at his prey with bloodlust in his eye, and the next with a closeup of a tonfa. He snickered at that one. He clicked the next button again, seeing a photo of a brown-haired woman; someone he guessed was Sawada Nana. He didn't see her much. She didn't really show up much, not even for parent-school visitations. The lady seemed to be looking over a photo with a fond, almost wistful look. That dreamy look was something he thought was inherited by his classmate.

He felt like this one was a bit too private, so he changed the photo. It was a photo of a man joyfully twirling his wife around. They both seemed to be having a whirlwind of a time. This was followed by the photo of the guy tripping over a well-tarnished floor to a paint job, after doing a coffee spit-take from his beer can. The whole shot seemed to be taken quite professionally, and he felt like the poor guy was victim to a well-rigged prank. He could call it a paint job, but it was literally wet building paint open like a Venus flytrap awaiting its next meal. Predictably the followup photo was that of a very colorful guy who seemed like he'd be saying some very colorful words when he got up from that position ( with his butt praying to the heavens above, more like ascending towards it). He chortled at that.

The next was his own photo, with him looking at the popup fly with dawning horror. That... was not one of his best moments. He clicked over to the other in haste. He was sporting a genuine smile, something that he could recognize as his own after a few blinks. He felt like his eyes were burning a bit, but he blinked a couple of times to cool them a bit. There weren't any more photos. The recess bell rang just then, and he had felt oddly refreshed. It was like, he didn't have to overexert himself to fit right in and find a place to belong... There would be people to see him for what he is. Things would be all right.

That day, Tsuna seemed pretty depressed and Yamamoto knew what had been the issue. But somehow, he couldn't find the voice to holla at him and give him back that camera.

It had taken a year since then for Yamamoto to work up the courage to approach him, and he did it because it seemed like Hibari-senpai had been catching on to the multitudes of cameras hidden in secret spots and proceeded to mercilessly decimate them. Then, as if to spite the brunette, he would collect all the pieces together, stuff them in a matryoshka doll and place it right on the brunette's desk. Tsuna seemed delighted to receive the doll, but became dismayed when he saw the remains.

Yamamoto knew that the other was interested in pose shots and expression shots from the evidence in his pocketed camera, so he offered his services to the brunette- saying that he could take the photos for the other. He knew that if it was him asking, other people might be more open to accepting their photos to be used for Tsuna's artistic endeavors or whatever. The brunette, infuriatingly, grew pale at that suggestion and rejected his proposal at the spot, without giving it any consideration.

With irritation fueling him, he cheerfully dragged the other to Namimori's beloved chairman, fully prepared to commiserate together. After all, misery loves company.

Then he gave Namimori's demon, who was fuming inside and churning his anger and preparing himself to erupt at any moment an incentive to keep those cameras. He told Hibari-senpai that he could use them as a surveillance system, thereby reducing the number of people patrolling at a single location, thereby reducing the extent of crowding in a particular location. It seemed like negotiations were a success, but Hibari-senpai still bit them to death, for  _formalities sakes._ Tsuna was given co-owner rights since Hibari didn't want to be bothered with maintenance duty.

Things seemed fine and dandy until the makeup incident happened. When he saw some of his friends having fun at the brunette's expense, he froze a bit. He didn't know whose side to choose, since there was no middle ground. He knew that bullying plagued Tsuna, but most of the students in Namimori chose him as their bobo beatdown doll. This time the problem seemed close to Tsuna's heart and the other wouldn't be as indifferent as he showed himself to be and that was the perfect honey trap for his bullies and Yamamoto's friends.

The group was actually pretty good spirited usually and they used to hang out and mess around with each other. Not to mention, Tsuna didn't even acknowledge his presence and wanted Yamamoto out of his life. There were good memories that were present when they hung out together and if he stood up for the brunette, the latter wouldn't appreciate it and the former would feel betrayed after being forced into the role of a villain.

He now understood the implications of actually hanging out with the brunette, it would mean alienating and rejecting most of the people at school. It was because Tsuna hardly showed that he was affected by anything, even if the other had to wear long-sleeved, fully covered clothes on a daily basis to avoid exacerbating his wounds. His dad used to chastise him when he ignored his own bruises from playing, saying that they'd get infected and then he'd be at the hospital recovering from a fever.

There weren't many merits being friends with Tsuna either. His friends would shun him, or at worst bully him. They would be bitter and unwilling to let Tsuna into their posse. So it'd have to be only Tsuna and him, together until school ends or if his schoolmates accepted him or if Tsuna gets more people that are willing to be friends with him or if Tsuna can't take it anymore and goes to another town, possible restarting the cycle. He knew how selfish people can be, that many a time, friendships are built on give and take.

Was he willing to give up all the advantages given to him so freely, when Tsuna couldn't even if he struggled? What would Tsuna think if he did that? Wouldn't he have a grudge against him?

Was standing by someone's side 'til the bitter end actually friendship? What about if the other side needed everything from you to actually sustain a friendship? How was that different from raising a pet?

As he stood petrified, Sasagawa Kyoko, who wandered over to him seeing his state, noticed his unease and connected the dots. Kurokawa Hana understood what her friend was planning on doing and barged in the room, bossing the hapless fools out of the place. The two quickly brought the situation under control.

Yamamoto... decided to give the brunette some space. His mind replayed over the incident for the following days, not regularly, but when they did, they didn't let him ignore his cowardice. To get a breath of fresh air, he wandered over to the antique shop that had dolls in the window side and remembered the matryoshka doll and how it lit a bright flame in the brunette's eyes. He wandered around like a nomad in the store, not really thinking of anything until he saw the same set of shades that belonged in the makeup set that Tsuna had lost that day.

When he had gotten preoccupied in the memories of that day, he had googled what exactly the set was with the visual descriptions that had been engraved into his brain. It was apparently doll paint, that was used to repaint the faded shades on ball joint dolls and other such well made figurines. He supposed it was a hobby that the brunette was as invested as he was in baseball. And yet, he just stood there.

By the time he realized it, the makeup set was in one of his hands, receipt on the other. He couldn't leave it in school, since something that can happen once, can happen again. So, he moved to the Sawada residence and placed it on their porch.

The next day, the brunette had a bewitched expression, like as if, a fox had visited him yesterday. He supposed that he really did behave like one, so he didn't bother solving the mystery.

A couple of days later, he finally figured out what those photos were meant for, as in the quiet classroom, at recess- the brunette sat, tinkering with the matryoshka doll and changed its appearance using the photos as reference. So, in the end... they were all for his precious dolls. Yamamoto could toil away and torment his mind over their encounters, but they would never form an impression in the brunette's mind.

At the end of the day, Yamamoto ignored the muffled sobs from the classroom as the brunette was left with a broken matryoshka doll. It had been dented with something blunt, like a bat for example.

That day, Yamamoto realized why bullies hovered around the brunette like bees to honey, because- hearing those cries, there was a dark sense of satisfaction. There was no going back and the brunette would never forgive him completely for what he did; He had ruined any chance for a beautiful friendship with his very own hands. But...  **He existed in Tsuna's world for the very first time**.

* * *

When he entered the Namimori middle school, it turned out that over the span of weeks, Tsuna's entire persona changed. He smiled with an expression that felt like it was ripped from his very own face. The brunette seemed to be aware of reality and seemed to be keen about integrating with the people.

But, he didn't have that whole spectrum of emotions, those microexpressions that could never hide the fact that for someone who seemed closed off, he was a deeply sentimental person. The brunette also seemed on keeping that dopey cheery expression and it made him rubbed him up the wrong way. It brought back the feelings of guilt and regret that crept up on him occasionally.

He couldn't pinpoint on what made him feel uneasy. The guy in front of him was Tsuna like he had his very core or soul and it had been stronger than he'd ever seen him like. But at the same time, it was like looking at a stranger.

Within weeks, Tsuna's change made people warm up to him; well not exactly. It made them less irritated with his actions and more inclined to brush off any mishaps. But it seemed like the other was new to the whole relationship thing and wasn't shy on trying to learn more to fit in; he observed their interactions tacitly.

It made sense on paper. The guy was a social recluse; more like a pariah. It makes sense that he'd struggle with the concept. This could be his middle school debut. Wasn't there terms like high school debuts or college debuts?

But the other wore the standard uniform now, and there wasn't a wound at sight. In the past years, the brunette would struggle to move normally, exertion evident on his face.

His eyes were almost marble-like or glass-like. There were slight nerve marks, but the overall look was strange.

He moved like grace had possessed his body. This was when just a month ago, the other walked with a limp and staggered and tottered around. He used to have a bad slouch, but now it seemed like he practically cat walked.

He'd never seen the guy eat anything and it wasn't like before the guy used to eat on a regular basis, but he'd look like he's starving. The bullies used to have their way with his lunch boxes, since apparently, Sawada Nana's food was just that awesome. Because of the hunger, the brunette walked dazedly, slept in class and didn't concentrate that well. This version well... was the exact opposite.

So he tried to offer a snack, an umaibo, to the brunette and claimed that he didn't really like the flavor that much. At that time both of them were carrying the class handouts to the staff room. Even if the other didn't change his expression, his words were a pitch higher than he usually was and he was completely vulnerable to these types of psychological attacks. Something told him that it wasn't because of the fact that he had entered the war for the first time, but that the other had never seen the war in the first place.

"So,  _who are you?_ "

The other backed away slightly at the hostility and tried to act like nothing was wrong. But the fact that he had tried to twist himself away to reduce damage when the old him had been indifferent outwardly- even going so far as using it in his arsenal - made Yamamoto feel like the imbued threat had been a worthy idea to undertake.

He gripped the other's elbow immediately and the strong grip exposed the ball joint underneath the delicate cloth skin.  _Dolls_ were a sensitive issue for Yamamoto. Ever since that day, he'd hated any of them with a passion. He would glare immediately at clothing store mannequins, scowl at the barbie his little cousin sister adored... it was immediate and apparent. It was also his bad habit- one that he couldn't get rid off.

But since hate and love like on the sides of the same coin, he could identify the fact that it was a doll's arm.

He briefly wondered if Tsuna's obsession peaked to such extremes that he started replacing his own body parts with those of dolls, But then he thought that using those prosthetic arms would need months of rehab which wouldn't fit in the time frame. And now that he had been suspecting it, he started to look at the body in front of him like it was actually one.

"What did you do to him?"

Sawada Tsunayoshi knew that there was no fooling him; Not anymore.

Yamamoto Takeshi entered Tsuna's room and felt like he wanted to puke. It was a doll maker's paradise and his purgatory.

The doll opened the closet, and withered lilies filled his vision and he felt like crying. It sang a ballad on what happened that night as he showed the jewelry box, filled with ash. The flowers drooped and showed that time waits for no one and will give no second chances.

Far from the house, in the antique shop, a melancholic shopkeeper conjured up a life like real illusion- it looked just like the phony that tried to take over and make things  _right_. It was more realistic than that doll and could counter all the flaws that the doll had. But like Theseus's ship, no matter how similar to the real one, the ship was- It could not be the real thing. What was the difference between that doll and the corpse that he made?

At least, that doll had been given life right from the brunette's very fingertips- down to his soul. He would give it grace, for it had be ordained his successor.

But for Yamamoto, the doll showed him grief. For it had shown him that the brunette had placed him in his heart. He had chosen to disregard that smile of his in his camera. He will also choose to disregard his smile adopted by the doll.

His hand shot at the doll's eyes since it was the very last thing that Tsuna... no Tsunayoshi saw. These eyes would accompany him to the afterworld.

But even still, his sharp fingernails couldn't scratch those two auburn eyes out. Yamamoto released his anguish, releasing the hurt, regrets, fury and hope that he had for rebuilding and building a friendship- one that he could have cherished. He could at this moment, break the spirit of this doll by letting him know about the limits that came with being one.

This thing in front of him would never be as expressive as his master was. It was the physical manifestation of a ghost. That would mean that there was no future for it, only the past and the experiences that came from it. It hadn't the physique of a human, so it couldn't relate to pain or learn new things or eat or drink or poop or have any other expression than that of the inexperienced,  _blind_ Tsunayoshi decided for it. It couldn't grow or shrink or age. It couldn't have experiences other than the ones Tsunayoshi had in his life.

But it was Tsuna's  _will_

_And he was tired of doing injustice to his pal._

So he hugged the doll and cried into his hair.

It stood rigidly still in that position, but couldn't cry or mourn for the loss. So Yamamoto decided to mourn for his bit.

As it reached midnight, the teary jock lamented

_Ahh... how I hate dolls_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there :D  
> I wonder if you guys have noticed the little references and implications I've hidden in the chapters. Maybe, they're a bit too hidden :p. Well, that makes the story all the more fun to read or write I suppose.
> 
> Just a little tidbit, Yamamoto had asked that question in the first chapter to nudge the brunette into forming relationships so that if they became friends, Tsuna didn't have to worry about having repercussions from befriending the most popular kid in school while being hated on so apparently. In case you didn't catch it.
> 
> Hope you had fun reading the story til now.


	4. Down the memory lane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this a long chapter huh? I'm not sure if I should split it to shorter ones so that it's a bit more readable...
> 
> Anyway, thanks for joining in to read this. Let me know what you think. Hope you have fun reading this.
> 
> I'm not very sure if the tags are appropriate with the story so far, because the guardians are darker that the person I've tagged as dark TToTT. I'm thinking of keeping this as the last of the past flashbacks, at least not the long ones. It'll be better to write for the actual plot! Geez. Well, enough ranting.
> 
> Here we go! (๑✪ᆺ✪๑)

When Sawada Tsunayoshi was in kindergarten, it wasn't the punches, kicks or slaps that made his tears flood out. It was the shock that came with being hit with the full brunt of their disapproval. The pain was momentary at that instant, and after the incidents, it stung and lingered. It was the rejection that hurt him the most.

He wasn't allowed to love fiercely, because when he hugged Amore to vent everything out; the cotton doll's arm almost ripped out. It was then, that he saw the sorry state of it; it was covered in snot and his breakfast since he insisted on sharing his meals with it. He had to face the fact that his love would eventually destroy it- and then, he'd be left to fight his battles alone. At that time, no one cared about an unwanted child wandering the streets. At the same time, their attention was captured by a rising dictator.

Everyone woke up every day, ready to handle everything life could throw at them. But he was a damn coward, so he kept a lookout for refuges. Before he had transformed his room, he used to wander the streets of Namimori, to search for places people rarely came to. Their stares scorched his skin, and his bruises flared when his eyes met another's. He felt his teeth chatter, his breath rough and shallow, his eyes swimming and his nose smelled copper and iron. His sharp fingernails were reassuring when they sunk onto something, but he hated its scent. He wanted to keep his hands busy with something.

When he saw a quiet shop, one that no one in town mentioned, he entered the place assuming that its owner was dead or the guy abandoned it and fled to another town. There wasn't a soul in the shop and it was dark. So he tottered inside and sat comfily near the porch that lead to a small courtyard. There was a badly maintained garden with overgrown weeds and there wasn't anything that he was doing at the moment. He spent the next couple of days pulling out weeds, removing the moss from the pond and collecting the trash thrown around the place.

There was a festival that was going to come in the next couple of days, so he pulled his mother along, intent on bringing back koi fish for the pond along with flower seeds to plant in the garden. His mom had gotten distracted during the fest, leaving him untethered do whatever he wished. So he spent the entire night trying to sic a lotta fish. That night, he made a bedsheet turned rope and headed towards the abandoned shop.

That place was his new hidden base, his very own secret hideout. During his several visits, he brought a kotetsu over to keep himself warm and cuddly as he would watch over his work. The garden now had a bunch of flowers that his classmates would shove from the windowsills of the upper floors when he tried to get in the nursery building. The others were the neglected flower gardens that his mother gave up on. It used to be her hobby and she used to nurture them like they were her very own children, but she had stopped recently when he heard her scream from her bathroom. When he dashed there, she had slouched against a broken mirror, with a bloody wrist. She looked like a wilted flower and it mimicked the way her flower garden had become lately.

Father hadn't been visiting and she had been tracing her finger over the youthful, beautiful figure dressed in a wedding gown. Tsuna thought that the neighbors' rumors and  _concern_  had been getting to the lady. So he had decided to shift the blame onto the absent father, since he couldn't handle living with someone who would become as broken as he would be in a while. He whispered to the gossiping wind that his father became a star. And then, his mother received the spotlight and showers of flowers.

The garden in the backyard looked like they thrived in his attention, even though they were abandoned by the one person that truly mattered. Truly, his mother was  _a flower on a high peak._

Unfortunately, the fun couldn't last forever and Sasagawa Ryohei had caught him on his return to his hideout. The boy who was similarly wounded and bandaged up as regularly as he was, but he, unlike him, was conferred the title 'Warrior'. He looked the brunette with righteous fury.

"Sawada, what you're doing is extremely uncool! Stop skipping classes! You're bringing up problems Hana!

She's supposed to be you guys' class in charge and she's taking the blame and covering your sh*t for you! As a man, don't you find this pathetic?!"

Tsuna wasn't masochistic and he will not go to a place to get a wallop or a daily dose of it. So he left the hyperactive boxer behind. He's perfectly fine letting the hero-in-the-making label him as scum. It wasn't like having a bad reputation or relation would affect him in any way. He couldn't stoop lower anyway.

But he couldn't stop the flinch when the other yelled after him when he planned to pull a fast one over him. He overreacted at that instance and fell over to the ground and immediately moved his arms to shield himself from any punches.

"S-sorry." the other mumbled and the brunette looked at the albino haired boy in shock. No one ever apologized to him, not ever.

The boxer scratched his head in slight embarrassment and moved his hand towards his arm to pull the smaller kid up, ignoring the flinch at the gesture. Then he shuffled at the spot and offered to help the other with whatever he was doing.

The brunette wasn't used to any form of kindness, so he just decided to roll with it, being kind of curious in what would happen in this kind of development. So he moved to the secret base and brought the watering can that lay standby on the table to water the flowers. The boxer looked at the garden with awe and peered over at the edge of the pond to see the small fish swimming around. Seeing that the other had moved to the place while looking around sneakily, he felt like this place was a secret one that he had been invited to. So, he couldn't show this extreme place to his little sister, since he was a man that didn't violate the bro-code.

Since then, the enthusiastic kid began bringing all sorts of nifty things to decorate the place with. He brought over a whole lot of shiny, sparkly pebbles of different colors to surround the pond. He even regularly visited the flower shop and brought brightly colored flowers like sunflowers, marigold, and roses to brighten the place up; saying that the place was too gloomy for his tastes. Sasagawa was so engrossed in prettying the place up, that many of his bandages had been reducing since he wasn't getting in as many fights as he had before since he was more preoccupied with something else.

His sister looked way more relieved now, the brunette observed. But the same couldn't be said to her friend since Kurokawa Hana wasn't happy that the guy forgot the mission that she had assigned to him. But she couldn't say anything since it did the guy a whole lotta good, making her friend really happy.

Well if the two boy's budding friendship taught the boxer anything, it taught the boy to choose his fights and only fight if there was something important to him at stake. Because he would have to choose to spend time settling scores instead of having fun at the base. Tsuna had been getting lax with the peace that befell him since the other could drag him out of sticky situations with his bullies even if the brunette tripped over thin air. True, getting dragged with his face in the ground was a bit annoying, but it was less humiliating than the alternative that the boy offered- being princess carried.

Then... his mother found out about him being a neet... and then harshly reprimanded him for letting her see the actual harsh reality. He had interrupted her dream-like experience. So, he had to go back to school.

If anybody celebrated his return, it was his  _friends_  who  _missed_ him so much that they pushed him around saying that they were  _lonely._ Sasagawa couldn't accept this kind of treatment and got back into fighting... and it was a long war. He was burning with just fury. And they were burning with the annoyance at a meddling kid who was getting in the way of their fun. Violence begets violence and Tsuna soon couldn't figure out who was taking their revenge on whom.

Having enough of seeing her bruised and battered brother, Sasagawa Kyoko shrieked at him with rage that he should fight his own battles. Kurokawa Hana backed her up and told him to grow a spine and stop being a wimp. The boxer couldn't intervene since he didn't want to hurt his sister who seemed to splitting hairs and at the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The sister turned her watery eyes at the boxer and begged him to promise her to stop getting into fights. At that time, it dawned to Tsuna, who looked at the scene in front of him, like a bystander; that Sasagawa Ryohei was Sasagawa Kyoko's knight in shining armor. That he was the angel to her goddess. So... before Sasagawa look at him with a sorry in his expression, he interrupted them with a callous dismissal and claimed that their base was actually occupied by its original owner. So he was through with the boxer.

The sister stepped in front of him and slapped him and called him despicable.

That day was just horrible for the lad anyway. When he stopped by the base that morning, he had seen an albino haired man who looked at the garden spellbound. Tsuna had to force himself to come in terms with the fact the garden was now the shopkeepers' and that homely house was also his.

Now he had to comprehend that Sasagawa was his sisters'. His mother was his fathers'. He was born empty-handed and he still is empty-handed.

People were never really something he could own or even belong with. They were always someone else's.

_"What's yours is mine, Tsuna-chwan"_

His bullies really spoke words of wisdom. It was like he was a broken kite or an unmoored ship.

He remembered his doll, Amore, who he had kept at the store and paled, thinking that he might have relinquished its ownership to the stranger wearing a checkered mask. But if he begged the other and told him he could do anything for the other, would he give it back? Or was it too late...?

* * *

When he stood at the entrance bathed in moonlight, the shopkeeper looked at him kindly. But Tsuna's mind was preoccupied with the doll in the other's hand. It was mended, cleaned, and decorated with beautiful satin ribbons. It looked like the doll was no longer his, since it looked like it was given a full makeover, like as if it was going to a better place.

His eyes burned with unshed tears, and the other pushed his doll further into his vision intending on returning the doll to its rightful owner.

When Kawahira returned to the shop, exhausted from having to monitor and make sure the current Arcobaleno don't get closer to the truth; this time, they were truly formidable, giving him a run for his money. He wanted to stop by for a quick break before getting back to business. He sighed when the mist shrouding him lifted, teleporting to the silent antique shop. He wanted to remove his mask, rub his tired eyes and sleep in his bed for a bit but saw a beautiful garden with fishes swimming under the pond that captured the moon. The fragrance of blooming flowers wafted through the atmosphere and he could now understand why people praised and tried aromatherapy. There was a kotetsu with a kettle that contained oolong tea and soft cushions that he could sit upon while gazing at the scenery. There was a young sakura tree that made him wonder how would the next spring look like, amidst the scattering petals. It made him look forward to the future for once.

There were lanterns near the sliding doors that gave a warm ambiance to the room, making the room seem like it had been lived in and his house looked like home for once.

His reverie had been interrupted when a small child stared at him mutely, before running away. He wondered if he was visited by a Zashiki Warashi. Then his eyes spotted the worn out doll and decided to make an offering for the little spirit, to repay the favor.

He looked at the teary child in front of him and tried to calm him down by praising the renovations he made.

"You've really transformed this place. It's gorgeous. I could never have done this."

Understanding flashed in the brunette's eyes and he finally lifted his tiny hands to accept the doll. It seemed like a deal had been made, even though that wasn't Kawahira's intention.

There was no helping it now, the child made it a part of his routine to visit and tend the gardens. It seemed like he had considered it payment for keeping the doll. The white-haired male couldn't convince him to drop the deal, so he decided to make his own twist of the circumstances. When in Rome...

Now, when Tsuna came over, there'd be sweet manju and tea that they both would snack over. He also bought a lot of doll merchandise since the boy seemed infatuated with them. The child would spend hours quietly decorating them, and the man, unable to handle the child's tears when he messed up, helped the other fix any mishaps from any experimentations.

But the shopkeeper couldn't really stay for too long since he was the arbitrator of the trinisette.

Once, he had gotten careless and left the back door open, and came back from business to see the brunette huddled in the corner moping around his doll. He was near the trinisette model that was linked to the arcobelano's pacifiers. He treated the very model that held the world's balance like a fireplace, holding a marshmallow in a stick, toasting it.

The shopkeeper gave the other a wry smile, feeling amused at the artifact being utilized this way. So he chastised the brunette, saying.

"That thing is dangerous, child. It leaks quite often and it could burn you if you get too close to it." Burning was an understatement, it would disintegrate him. The child was already on pins and needles on a daily basis, he didn't need to be spooked with that detail.

"If it leaks, it would eventually stop. There's no such thing as a perpetual motion machine, anyway."

"Unfortunately, this machine gets its supply to allow it to leak that much." The price was sometimes very,  _very_ expensive. It came at the cost of the chosen seven's lives. It made the vindice carry a grudge that made them crawl out of their graves. They could never find peace amongst themselves and didn't rest in the name of vengeance.

He supposed this was why he allowed the brunette to stay for this long. It was because they both were so unilaterally hated by the people around them. There was no one that would wish them to stay alive. They wouldn't wish them to fare well. It was too bad for the earthlings that they didn't have a benevolent god.

Feeling tired, he sat in front of the miserable child and spoke his worries for the first time. He spoke into the silent room on matters that no one in this planet would hear.

"The continuous supply from its source makes it unusable after some time. It makes getting new sources a painful process.

Sometimes, the extinguished sources become violent and volatile. They... have to be destroyed. But because of the system, the sources try to destroy it."

"Why don't you get rid of those?"

"They radiate continuously and they try to source it to the system. It's hard to corner and destroy it. Containing it or stabilizing it is much more unstable."

The brunette thought that this was something like a nuclear energy powered system, so he muttered.

"What about using that extinguished system as the cap for the system? It can replace the leaky part of the new energy source. When the new energy source is dying off, it can be squeezed out to form the core again..." he promptly shut up when he saw the other looking at him seriously.

He immediately started spouting excuses.

"It was like my dolls. If the cotton in it started losing air and it appeared to sag off, I'd use newspapers to fill in the remaining air. That's why I thought it would work!-"

"Sorry, Tsunayoshi-kun, do you think you could go home for today? I've got some work to do."

The brunette looked like he'd been chastised. He took up his doll and rushed to the door, before muttering a sorry. When Kawahira immediately tried to rectify the situation, the boy wasn't there anymore. He huffed in irritation. It was hard to always be on his tiptoes to not set off the boy. He accidentally spoke those callous words, since his mind was whirring with the possibility of fixing this once and for all.

He looked at the full moon outside.

It was a truly beautiful night today.

He returned to the shop after a month and beckoned at Tsuna who was wandering around that area. The child looked spooked when he saw that the older man waved at him. When he approached him, the man lifted him up and twirled him around with a drunk joy. The poor kid looked like he had experienced vertigo.

The child then peeked around him and asked him what happened to the system and Kawahira cheerfully replied that it was out of his hands. Tsuna paled like a white sheet at that and immediately did a dogeza, to which the shopkeeper panicked and tried to pry him off the floor. He had to stop the other from apologizing profusely and couldn't even say a word of thanks. By the time the child calmed down, he was so tired he just dozed off to sleep. Kawahira just laughed softly and patted the child's hair only for the other to nuzzle into the touch. The man just quietly gazed at the garden for the rest of the night.

A couple of days later, the shop door opened with a bang and a young Aria barged into the shop. Tsuna shrieked and hid under the kotatsu. The child had never seen this lady before and decided to stay out of trouble just in case. What would make this lady different from the other people anyway? But Kawahira, that jerk threw him under the bus.

He had closed his ears and crouched in a well-hidden place so that he could weather whatever this was, but after a while, he had been pulled by his arm out of his trench and was made to face the rather briskly speaking lady who spoke in a language that he couldn't have understood. Then a blonde haired guy came forward and broke the iron clutch that the woman had on him. She finally shifted her intense stare to the man next to her and they seemed to argue about something. When Tsuna looked at Kawahira to rectify the situation, that ass just waved his hand towards him. So he had to take this matter into his own hands and broke for it when he thought that they were preoccupied enough to forget that he existed.

There were shouts left behind, but he decided to hell with it and decided to camp at the Sawada residence until things calm down.

* * *

The time he had spent was finally enough for the child Hibari to finish setting up preparations to start his despotic reign over the town of Namimori. Thus, when he saw that Tsuna was loitering around the town he faced him and bit him to death. It was the first time the child felt such pain since the other made swift and precise attacks to quickly deal with nuisances.

From then on, Hibari had decided that the streets were his, so Tsuna could only be herded off to elementary. It was like life whispered to his ears that he wasn't allowed to run away from his problems anymore. And it rest its dainty fingers around his fragile neck and choked him quietly.

_"Grow a spine, Sawada!"_

_"You should fight your own battles, Sawada-kun!"_

And Tsuna stared at his wrists and wondered if the fists of his could protect anything? His dignity had long been in shambles and he really had nothing to protect.

Tsuna's bullies- no,  _friends_  looked at him, and gave him a wide smile. He shivered.

They came towards him and slung an arm around him and welcomed him back. And then Tsuna realized that it hurt twice as bad since he was rarely hurt in the past month. But he trembled at getting used to this. His body had decided to throw the white flag before Tsuna could do anything to stop things from spiraling out of control.

They enjoyed getting a rise from him. They could pop a balloon right next to his ear and he would shut his ears and duck for cover, since the pop struck sharply at his earlobe and the sound hurt his eardrums.

He strived clear of bathrooms since they tried locking him in a cubicle and poured buckets of scum and sud on him. He'd shiver and reek like a rat after that. If things went south, they'd drown his head into a toilet bowl. When they flushed, he shrieked like a banshee since he thought that his head might be decapitated from him and get flushed into the sewers. They guffawed at his girly screech.

He had to mute his screeches, since they would either get riled on by it, by amusement or by irritation. Sometimes, he thought he should light a matchstick and swallow it so that his voicebox would burn off and it wouldn't produce any strange sound. He also had to avoid meeting any person's gaze as his eyes would betray him and plead for help when every well-meaning person was a Sasagawa Ryohei who had a Sasagawa Kyoko. Those angels couldn't afford to lend a hand.

The Physical Education grounds were an execution ground for him. His  _friends_ kicked sand into his eyes and pushed him whenever he tried to get up. They growled in anger when he couldn't manage to get near them since his body refused to move into their personal space. He couldn't command it to move and he felt like he was losing control of his own damn body.

He felt like the last string snapped when he saw Sasagawa Ryohei approach him and ask him if he wanted to join the boxing club. Voluntarily joining something to get punched around...? Tsuna felt nauseous. He was going to puke at that instant if he even entertained doing that. But the boxer ignored his refusal and dragged him over to the club. But Tsuna's eyes blacked out immediately when he saw the boxing glove approaching him quickly.

Thus, the brunette stood over the kitchen counter and approached his mother for the very first time and spoke,

"K-Kaa-san...

I'm... I'm not really... getting along well with my classmates. Can I  _please_  shift schools?"

"Tsu-kun, you have to learn to adjust. In life, you can't be so selfish all the time."

Tsuna wanted her to come over to him and choke his miserable life out its existence.

Then he just silently stared at her and decided to take a page out of her book. He was her kid, they shared the same DNA. So, he can very well get lost in a dream like she did.

He didn't have to live in reality. No one could force him. He himself was abetting her to live in a fantasy. So she could forgive him for drowning in one too, right?

Like mother like son.

* * *

Hibari Kyoya knew that people feared and as a consequence of that, respected him. He believed that life had a hierarchy, with carnivores at the top and herbivores at the bottom. But there was one that didn't seem like he wasn't trying to subvert the order, but create one right inside it.

Sawada Tsunayoshi was interesting, as he was infuriating. When he walked into a confrontation between some herbivores and him, they had moved to punch the small one, and the other foolishly took the full brunt of it. He decided enough was enough since they were making a racket and they scurried after getting their just rewards. The brunette lingered there and his eyes caught on to a notepad that the other carried around, stopping his warning from leaking out. The other took a photo of himself and then traced the punch and wrote measurements of the width and length of the fingers. He seemed to be correcting his observations and it was a truly strange way of measuring the human anatomy. Then, audaciously, he jotted down the time that Hibari had shown up there. Hibari had felt a feeling of unease for the first time- It was the simple fact that this kid had  _many_ unfortunate encounters with him; It could allow the brunette to know his habits and movements.

Then the other took out bandages and wrapped them around the most affected regions with trained hands and moved quietly out of the area.

He had encountered the brunette in the same isolated street for the 4th time before he clicked his tongue, thinking that the brat didn't have the ability to learn. For the 5th time, he had been chased by some kids into that street and the prefect promptly took care of the teens. The brunette was out of sight by then. Then the same thing happened for the 6th and 7th time, and finally, Hibari realized that he had been played with. His teeth gnashed together in repressed fury.

The next couple of weeks, he thought the other didn't trudge that path, but then found out that his patrol route had been exploited to grant the brunette access to wherever he wanted. It was the payoff of a lingering suspicion that he had been magnificently duped. He had set up IR sensors at isolated street corners and found out that someone had really passed through those places. Upon closer inspection, he found proximity sensor cameras that were triggered to capture photos of people that walked in that area and even had timestamps for each time the photo was snapped. Of course, the camera had no photos of Sawada since the other had erased them thrice a week.

It was from a trusted source, the threatened redhead herbivore could attest to that. That herbivore was strangely shifty-eyed when he gave him that information.

He thought that there was a way to counter this. He simply decided to move from rooftop to rooftop and learned parkour to enable a new way to patrol over his town. This method was useful to swoop down on the brunette who was confident in knowing the other's patrol route. The kid counterattacked with another solution and bugged his armband with a radar chip. He had realized that he had been beautifully tricked into broadcasting his location when one of his targets threw a water balloon at him to give them time to escape; thus giving him a shock. Naturally, he gave the other a painful beatdown for that, but the revelation still annoyed him.

The prefect tried a new tactic out of spite for the first time. He placed the armband with the chip on a bush, near the isolated street, ringing it over its branch. It sure did intimidate Sawada.

Hibari realized that even if he changed the patrolling time and route, he still couldn't be present at every location at the same time and Sawada could eventually create another routine that could avoid him, even at the cost of pain and retaliation. It was honestly a conundrum that someone would team up with pain to achieve a goal. It meant that Hibari's tactics couldn't be applicable universally. It wouldn't serve as a deterrent.

This time, he decided to apply a different strategy, one that he would never have considered. He moved to the rooftops of a building over that isolated street and tailed the brunette to find exactly where was he going every single time. He learned that it was an antique store that the boy bought doll parts and design materials. So he fiddled with dolls as a hobby, huh? In that case, he didn't really need to block the child from shopping for his items related to his interests, right? (But a voice whispered in his ears that he had lost this battle.)

Hibari decided to make every time he catches the brunette crowding around a group, extra painful for the latter. His conviction on this decision grew stronger when he found out that the redhead herbivore, Irie Shoichi, and Sawada Tsunayoshi were in cahoots this whole time. In fact, they cooperated to reach a mutually beneficial relationship of avoiding those who tormented them- but in Sawada's case, it was the opposite.

If it was Hibari, he could think of better uses for that information. To think, it was the different stance that made the level difference. He smirked.

How very interesting.

The prefect took up establishing a DC committee to increase the range of his operations. He also took up observing the brunette very closely, close enough to notice the traces of paint and close enough to observe how the other constructed and reconstructed appearances into features. It was like an artist memorizing features to replicate them on paper. In fact, it seemed like the brunette was fascinated at his eyes when he decided to teach someone about the boundaries they weren't to cross.

It meant that Tsunayoshi wasn't devoid of bloodlust, it was only right now that he was trying to build his own kingdom. Hibari wanted to drag the other into his world so that he could choose the option of unleashing that chaos onto the chains that the brunette willingly bound himself onto. So, when Yamamoto proposed that he could use the cameras in the school as a surveillance system, he made the brunette as the co-owner as a form of invitation.

The way the brunette kept getting injured was something that put a limitation on the potential he could achieve. But the other couldn't handle the idea of retaliation in the fear of being susceptible to pain. The dolls were the incentive that allowed the brunette to accept pain in the first place. He thought that Sasagawa Ryohei with how incessant he was, could get Tsuna to develop; But after the boxer saw how the other rejected his approach, the idiot became too afraid to give it another go. Hibari figured that since that fool had nothing but good intentions, Tsunayoshi could be nudged towards fighting back with positive reinforcing.

But, something went wrong when he stalled from advancing by pondering. Yamamoto approached him, and Hibari didn't understand how did this guy come to think of him as a mutual friend since he came to  _him_ for advice.

"Hibari-senpai, you know what Tsuna likes right? He seemed pretty happy with the matryoshka doll that you gifted him that time. So, could you help me with giving Tsuna a gift so that I can make it up to him?"

"That matryoshka doll was used to spite him- that underneath all those layers it's nothing but trash"

"But Tsuna's eyes glittered like a kid with each matryoshka doll layer that he found inside it..."

He gave the delusional brat a knock to wake him up and left the unconscious idiot on the floor. He didn't need more idiots popping up in his Namimori.

Turns out, Yamamoto was perfectly capable of finding an appropriate gift for the brunette. It wouldn't mean anything if he had contributed to it in the first place. It was a matter amongst themselves anyway. But later in the year, when he saw a crying brunette hunched over a dented matryoshka doll, Namimori had learned that Yamamoto for some inexplicable reason ended up in Hibari Kyoya's blacklist.


	5. Festering grudges

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome. This is where the story actually starts. Thanks for reading til now, fellow comrades lol.
> 
> Hope you have fun with the chapter, lemme know what you think, k? (๑ↀᆺↀ๑)

Tsuna stared at the exhausted jock snoring softly above him. This guy had looked at him with the same look that the brunette looked upon him; searching for something, lamenting on how fate rolled its dice. He wondered if this guy would meet the same fate of the brunette?

In a way, it would have given a sense of normalcy if this teen could take the place of his late master and weep and vent right at him... but the latter wasn't looking at him. Ah... that stare was mesmerizing. Maybe, one day, there'd be one that was looking at  _himself_ with that look.

The other may want to project his version of Tsunayoshi onto him.

Now, isn't that just unfair?  _He was the one that his master actually talked to._  What could this guy know about his master that he didn't? For this little jock, Tsunayoshi was his personal  _Hello Kitty._

He smiled darkly at the sleeping beauty. Well, who was he to refuse guests?

Tsunayoshi abhorred the actions that those who tormented him took. But those actions can have different motives, intents, and meanings. The world that the brunette had given up even with the different solutions it provided, he could drag these residents into. Weren't they jealous that Tsuna created this beautiful kingdom, but didn't allow any entry?

He stroked the hair of Yamamoto almost gently. He'd give the eager a VIP pass and a personal invitation. As for the rest...

But he'd be the one to judge if they  _deserve_ those invites.

He waited until the jock seemed to wake up groggily and asked the other who looked dazedly at the new background, not comprehending any of it.

"Will you do a favor for me?"

He didn't bother asking about the other's intents. Words thrown at him were cheap, and he could understand by looking at the other's telltale signs. The jock seemed to finally reach an epiphany, recalling all train of actions that explained his current surroundings. Absent-mindedly thinking that he had to call his dad and give him a heads up that he'd probably be sleeping over like last night in his friend's house, he gave a hum of approval, to let the other let him know the contents of the request.

"Get me an ant farm. Don't worry, I'll pay for the expenses and you can forget about getting it for me later."

Yamamoto gave him an easy ok. He didn't question about the odd request since he had also wanted to take a close look to ascertain the other's characters and habits. It would be easier if he could stick by his side and not make the latter be wary about him.

So the jock had off-handedly commented about how weird it was that people would buy ants for pets when he and his friends had passed by the pet store. Seeing his rare disgruntled face, the group had bought and placed the ants on his desk with a neat ribbon wrapped on it. They guffawed when he saw the exasperated Yamamoto who held the ant farm in bewilderment.

Kurokawa joked about offering their sweet snacks as an offering to Yamamoto#2 and Kyoko looked aghast at the prospect of losing her sweets this way.

The very next day, they looked at a mopey jock who said that his dad had gotten rid of it when the ants attacked their sushi supply that night. They laughed merrily at his predicament and laughed even harder when the other bought a popsicle and stuffed it in the mouth of the main perpetrator's mouth, as a sarcastic form of thanks for everything. And eventually gave the group a treat when they jokingly protested at the fact that only one of them got a treat.

Tsuna had looked at the ant farm that lay perfectly intact in his hands. He immediately passed the money that the other used for giving that treat, which the jock accepted while distracted by the impressed look that the brunette sported at him.

The baseball lover had observed that the brunette gave his new pets only the minimum amount to survive, but didn't give them a route of escape to better hunting grounds. He wondered why did the guy want them in the first place?

Tsuna had his eyes targeted on the first experiment to test a theory. He wondered if what happened to his master could be replicated to someone else. It didn't even matter if the first experiment failed, it would take a 2 out of 3 odds to be statistically relevant anyway.

Luckily, his master had a  _lot_ of dolls that could serve as vassals. He could learn about the weaknesses that his body could sport, since he had to be here long enough to do what he must, and no one should interrupt his stay.

So he needed hapless test subjects, and the ones perfect for the job would be the ones that threw themselves onto him- his  _dear friends._ In fact, he had set his eyes on. Mochida Kensuke, who had been quite persistent in making him his wingman to court Sasagawa Kyoko.

Valentine's day was coming up and he found a good recipe to get things cooking.

* * *

He had spent a week doing recon work in the kendo captain's classroom. Hibari wasn't making the usual rounds and the students were either in clubs or in the ever-popular go-home club. So he could move to a corner right next to Mochida's desk and dug a hole there.

He spent time getting the ants used to having the chocolate he planned for the captain for their food. They were lately getting into a frenzy when he had the piece in their sight, lid open.

In the actual day, he reached the captain's locker and slipped an open packet of the Valentine chocolate. He brought the ant farm and emptied the contents into the hole that he dug. Finally, he reached the empty classroom and placed another set of open chocolates in his bag, and left it slightly open. Mochida had come early that day, anticipating a day where he'd be at the receiving end of adoration in the form of sweet goodies.

An hour or two later, he heard yells loud enough to reach the lower floor. At recess, Yamamoto dragged his chair and flopped on his direct opposite so that they were face to face.

"You know, Mochida-senpai's luck seems to be the worst today. Somehow, a whole swarm of red ants flooded into his bag and locker. They were having a feast with the chocolates that he had placed inside it. The class freaked since some of them been around their candy too. But since senpai was the worst hit out of them, one of them poured water to get them down and away from traversing the other's arm.

And you know? Senpai freaked immediately and tossed the bag outside the window. Man... now his books are all wet. His locker's in a better state, but since his kendo clothes were there, senpai accidentally tore parts of it because of the burning itch."

"...Why're you telling me this?"

"Hmm? Just thought you might want to know.

It's too weird to not talk about it. Ant infections are horrible. The prank those guys pulled taught me that!"

Mochida Kensuke was in a prickly mood that day and anything anybody had to say about their Giri or Honmei chocolates really  _stung_ him.

But when bad luck struck, it struck in spades.

The very next day, his shinai randomly broke in the practice match with a powerhouse and the opponents didn't pull their punches on how sloppy the  _captain_ had to be to not take care of the main item that would lead them to victory.

The humiliation fanned his rage, and he snapped at people around him making Sasagawa Kyoko show her disapproval and even openly berate him. The peanut gallery snickered at the whole event, and it drove him to charge at her and threaten her. It immediately hushed the bystanders who started heckling him. Then, he made a hasty retreat, snarling some choice words.

The very next day, Tsuna had stopped Sasagawa Kyoko from practicing her recorder for the music class and whispered in a concerned tone-

"Sasagawa-chan, you might not want to use that..."

The girl looked at the glistening end of the recorder and dropped it, shocked and disgusted. With the previous day's incident fresh in mind she berated Mochida as a creep. Kurokawa Hana became furious at her expense and charged into the senpai's classroom and interrupted the class with a loud accusation. She cornered his seat and let out complaint after complaint, screaming at his audacity for leaving his saliva and spit at her friend's recorder.

The teacher grew morose at the claim and the class broke into whispers. Mochida's courting was a famous affair and the other did it aggressively. But his strongman approach had been forgiven since the other had brought in accolades and had the support of his friends and teammates.

But the mock battle had left his teammates frustrated at being looked down at since the captain's screw up had been used to label them as useless. The coach had yelled at them since they had been spending weeks to show off their skills and now they were considered a joke. It threw their efforts into the metaphorical trash bin.

Sasagawa Kyoko was the school's idol and was well liked by many, if not, most of the students in the school. Seeing her being openly harassed and belittled didn't stick well into the hearts of her peers who had pegged the captain's ardor as a misogynistic, backward man's abuse. And with the recorder being treated as his sick form of payback, the juicy piece of gossip burned bright and the fire was kindled magnificently. They were given an opportunity to hate with a passion and gain great social acceptance. Who would pass up on this chance?

But Mochida Kyosuke was a prideful teen, so he stood against the accusations in staunch denial. He didn't deny the accusations but instead accused them of being assholes and jerks for even thinking of judging his character, for putting a stain in his pristine reputation. He was like a cornered animal and cursed and attacked anyone in his vicinity.

When Hibari caught wind of the havoc, it was a very sticky situation. The two sides became entwined in a dark twisted and warped symbiotic relationship. The girls started accusing the guys of sticking up and engaging in the perverted and deviant people like Mochida. The guys didn't take well to being marginalized and accused the other side of leading them around by the noise and dressing promiscuously. Well, of course, it wasn't like the whole school participated. It was mainly the ones associated with Sasagawa Kyoko and Mochida Kyosuke. An enraged Sasagawa Ryohei just added oil into the fire and the boxing club became involved into the catfight.

So Tsuna went forward to Hibari and gave the other a delicious offer, it might as well be the devil's whispers.

"Take care of the aftermath, and I'll help Mochida-senpai quiet down."

Weirdly enough, Sasagawa Ryohei was there when he had made that offer. Tsuna wondered how had those two gotten close. The boxer had heard his proposal and volunteered to help him do that.

Well, he wouldn't refuse an extra hand, so he asked the other to knock the other out so that he could cool down a little. He added on that he could drag back the teen to his house and let his parents know what the other had been getting into so that they can beat some sense into the other. The boxer seemed slightly disappointed by the idea, but the darkness in the brunette's eyes, looking like that of Hibari, made him think that this deal may be sweeter than it sounded like.

Charged by fury at what the ass had done to his little sister, the other had unhesitatingly punched the living daylights out of a twitchy and desperate kendo captain. The three reached the Mochida residence and Hibari suggested that the brunette and himself could take care of it from there. The boxer hesitated a bit, but ultimately, his worry for his sister's state won out and he rushed on back with a quick sorry and sincere thanks.

Hibari brought out a phone that looked suspiciously like Mochida's own and swiftly took out the original and smashed it into bits. He also brought out a manilla folder. It seemed like the other had an inkling of his plans, but seemed strangely on board for it. But the doll couldn't exactly pry it out of the steely prefect.

So he moved on to what he could actually control. With time... Hibari wouldn't have this kind of chokehold over him.

Hibari rapped on the door and barged into the house and stated the current state of affairs. He told the parents that the child was being arrested as a juvenile delinquent (not that he should talk) for exhibiting sexual deviant behavior and compromising the safety of the female students.

From the manilla folder, the candid photos of girls spread over their dining table and he tossed the mobile onto the table like it was dirt and filth. The brunette felt like snickering when he imagined the phone like a hot potato.

Getting back on track, Tsuna took over from there and bowed his head and spoke in an aggrieved tone, bringing his hands to his face to apply the saline drops to emulate tears and claimed that the other beat him to silence so that he couldn't speak up. He lifted up his sleeves and showed the painted bruises and 'cried' over what happened this day and the previous day. By mixing in parts that fit the boy's personality- it became a story made of half-truths. Definitely, much more convincing.

And knowing the captain's pride combined with his bad temper, he would never have tried to reveal a soft side or try to get his parents to pity his ordeals; and simply fly into a rage and cause mayhem. The other's tendency to be petty and small-minded could help him dig a bigger pit for himself.  _It could just mean that the situation was falling into the spotlight for the first time._

It seemed like the earth had been shattered under the two adult's feet as they weren't even given a chance to think straight or mull over the fact as the DC committee barged into their house to search for further evidence, well...  _planted evidence_  that they would later find. It seemed like it was it was the time interval that the prefect would provide him to do his deeds. There would be no law firm that would take their case and Tsuna had his own methods of persuading them.

This was apparently Hibari's side of dealing with the aftermath. It also showed him the extent of power that Namimori middle school's chairman possessed and erased the possibility of throwing the boy as a used pawn. But still, he didn't want to take this teen under his wing, _because he was this powerful_.

* * *

When he returned to the Namimori residence with the boy in toll, he saw a cheerful Yamamoto wave at him. The other helped him bring the ragdoll onto the tree and into his room via the windowsill. He didn't expect this guy to be on board with what he was pulling.

But Yamamoto had made a decision while waiting for the brunette to reach the house.

He had been looking from the sidelines at the whole incident, right from the start. It told him that he had two choices- he could retreat and avoid being subjected to the next Mochida in the far future. Or he could become powerful enough to become as indispensable as Hibari is right now and stay by the other's side. When he thought of what choice he made with Tsunayoshi and where that lead...

The jock stood by the door, ready to interfere if things went south.

Tsuna thought that if the delinquent could obsess over a wish as his master did, the other could definitely quiet down. After all, the teen's new body- Amore, was a cloth doll. It couldn't speak, nor could it move and it couldn't dominate over the brunette like it did when they lived in the same space.

Even if it seemed like a bum deal, it had its own pros. Since Tsuna had to give up some things to become who he was, and then... Tsuna could smile for the first time, and smile easily and frequently. The new Mochida didn't have to hear any more libel since he would be physically incapable of doing that. He, technically, would stop from being the person they framed him into, and he would _never_  become that person...  _not in this eternity._

So he tied the teen up, to give him a glimpse of how he would soon become and slapped him conscious.

He giggled happily, mirth filling his body at how the tables turned.

Seeing the callous smile sported on the pathetic kid that he had been teaching lessons into, Mochida flew into a rage when he noticed his new state. Seeing the brunette crouch and so obviously look down at him, his anger fueled as the other taunted him mercilessly.

The brunette goaded him on and poured salt into his wounds by picking up a panty that he had bought and stuffed it into the teen's chatty mouth. He made sure to push it inside, making it coated with his spit as the other choked at the forced intuition.

Shame and humiliation burned into him at the treatment forced into him as the other bought a lovely doll that had been dressed into the same hairdo as Sasagawa Kyoko, and pushed its face right into his face. Not giving the other a break, he sat leisurely onto his back and forced the captain's head right at the doll's face and whispered on what had actually happened, and what exactly was the hurricane and sh*t storm that he had been caught into- the truth.

Tsuna gleefully observed the other darken with each word he uttered and when the other's countenance turned pitch black, he drove a salad knife right into his neck. The other's life promptly snuffed out of existence.

It left the brunette disappointed with the fact that Amore wasn't up and talking.

**Well, it didn't matter in the end. He still had two tries left.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how many of Tsuna's moves can you find out in this chapter? Fufu.
> 
> Well, wow. It got dark pretty fast... more like pretty edgy. I'm a bit satisfied with how it turned out, but I wonder if I should tone up or down the darkness...  
> Decisions, decisions


	6. The entrance to the path of a serial killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Long chapter  
> Right now, it's all implications- but it might be better that way ;) The story would probably be narration-heavy, sorry bout that. It seems like it's the best way I can express what I want to do with this story.  
> All right, back we go to the story! Hope you like the story, and feel free to post your opinions on it- I'll eventually reply to em (cos PMs seem a bit too privacy breaching- maybe that's the coward in me who's saying that lol) in the author's notes part here.

'Maybe it failed because Mochida Kensuke died having a grudge on Tsunayoshi...

I should get the next one to fall in love and accept his next self.' The doll mused at the brink of sunlight.

Yamamoto had left, looking ragged; but Tsuna wanted to focus on more important things.

'The next one should be taken care off without the prefect. I don't know what that guy's thinking.

If the people feel like pigs in a slaughterhouse, they'd rebel and try to break out of his control- even more so, if he's one of the perps.

Maybe... if I reinforce his rule, it'd be a win-win situation...'

his eyes gleamed under the sun, as he thought of the impending school trip- the ticket to freedom that the students achieved for two weeks without the threats of the prefect.

It was advertised to them as "the chance to experience Nature in all its wildness." and "to let us see how it would be like to live without the convenience of modern progress."

He picked up Amore and removed all of her decorations, and marked her forehead with her name. Then he took a glowstick and stuffed it inside her. It glowed in the dark and her name was easily readable and could be the  _only_ light source in a dark room.

Tsuna then went and removed more stuffing to create a door like contraption that he could pass a small pipe through for transporting material.

He had finished the preparations for the main event and just in time to leave for school.

When he walked downstairs in uniform, he looked mildly surprised to see Yamamoto at the dining table having a merry chat with his mother. She looked far happier than she ever did with him. It was a perfect picture- Yamamoto Takeshi certainly had his way with people. In fact, if he was the artist, he'd have painted himself out of the picture by now. But obviously,  _someone_ didn't have any taste.

The jock's ability to recover instantly from any hardships made the doll feel almost jealous. It was annoying how it felt like it was only him who was stuck deep in a mire.

Even as a doll, he still wanted to search for company- even if he was the most unique- the only living doll the world could offer. At least, if not for company, then maybe it could serve as a test subject to see if the past could only remain as the past.

Maybe then, Tsunayoshi could have the company he wanted- he himself could be a much better company in this form.

Yamamoto's arm slung over the doll's shoulders, breaking him out of his reverie. Two pairs of eyes were on him. His mom's eyes were filled with relief and directed at him. It was something he didn't remember seeing on her.

It was obvious that he wouldn't have recognized it when he was alive. There was no original to compare to. The doll felt like his throat was constricting on him for some reason as rage bubbled into him.

Obviously, it was all phantasmic. Why had his imagination have to compensate for the real thing?

"...Let's head out, Tsuna. Hibari'd have our ass if we reach there late."

Tsuna avoided meeting the worried glance of Yamamoto and reached for the door. He had to ignore these things. There was no point in pondering over ifs and buts. The present and the future was the only thing that mattered for the world.

"Oh right, Tsuna. About that Mountain trip, they say that we can go pick out mushrooms- like Shiitake and the grand prize, the Matsutake mushrooms. Some people even said there might even be truffles.

Rather than the nature trip the teachs' want it to be, most of us are treating it as a gold mine. That is, if we don't mistake and pick the poisonous ones instead, ahahaha.

At least the botany teacher's gonna get a blast from it, regardless of our actual motivations. He even goes all 'Only the ends matter, not the means'. It's almost like the lines movie villains spout, haha.

So, how about it? Wanna team up with me? It'll be real fun!"

Tsuna's eyes glinted as he replied, "...Sure, that sounds interesting."

"Man, they're so right All that glitters is gold." Yamamoto laughed merrily as he butchered a phrase. That saying never stood a chance in the presence of the jock.

Sasagawa Ryohei was running past them, but stopped abruptly when he heard the word team. He enthusiastically said,

"What?! You guys are making the mushroom hunting thing into a team competition?! Count me in! We'll reach for victory!"

"Yeah! The Gold is ours!"

* * *

The flash team formation took place near the gates, causing a ruckus that stalled the students enough to miss the last bell.

Hibari looked at them with irritation as they were the sole perpetrators to ruin the one day that the school could have perfect attendance with the pace they were going.

Sensing the bloodlust aimed at them, Yamamoto picked up Tsuna by the collar and dashed like mad to the classroom. Sasagawa got riled up at the advance made by the prefect, thinking it was an impromptu match- becoming an excellent distraction for the deranged bird.

Nedzu started off their homeroom droning on and on about the trip and its potential dangers, instead of bragging about his credentials for once.

"-You people best stay away from the off-limit areas. They've put fences around the cliffs because idiots like you decide that sky diving is the way you want to enter heavens-"

Tsuna peered out of the window to look at an annoyed Hibari that didn't seem to look any satisfied by the person who didn't put much of a fight but was as resilient as a cockroach.

'Well, Sasagawa Ryohei is the closest you can get to a real-life zombie after all.'

"-I don't want any complaints from the local authorities or from the guests regarding you people monkeying around late night, or even doing food fights, or harassing any of the locals. Don't pick any fights either. You're going there as a representative of the school. I don't want a second Mochida Kensuke-"

He then looked across the classroom abruptly when he caught the eye of the prefect.

'That surprised me. I never thought that the guy could get distracted from a fight.'

His eyes wandered over a Hana that was mime-ing the homeroom teacher and then to a giggling Kyoko who was desperately trying to keep a poker face(and failing it badly).

It then met with Takeshi's eyes that looked at him thoughtfully, before turning into crescent moons as he waved over.

"-And for pity's sakes, if you're going around picking up random plants for food from the mountain.

1\. We have a well endowed cafeteria open 24/7, so you can damn well use it! 2. At least show it to the botany teacher so that he can tell if it's poisonous or not, and he won't try to take your find for himself... I can't believe that I have to say this explicitly!

This is not even my job..., It's not even in my contract!-"

His eyes looked at his now spotless desk and he wondered why were things so different from what he remembered. Change was something truly difficult to accept. Maybe it was much easier for an actual human- the people around him seem to adapt just fine.

He let the drone of Nedzu become the buzz that surrounded him as he zoned out until the bell rang.

Recess came by, and the brunette left before the jock could catch up to him. He planned on going to the library, which was mostly isolated at this time.

His feet moved towards the botany section as his mind came up with ideas to run side quests when he was in the trip.

The period ended and he realized that he needed to get books on top of his desk, now that people didn't avert their gaze from a crime scene. The pristine wood wasn't a sight appreciated by the teachers.

And it made a good excuse for Yamamoto to head over and share his books with him. He didn't know what was more distracting- the jock's chatter or the scribbles that conquered the text painstakingly made by the authors and the publishers. His eyes twitched at the various beards and mustaches over the ladies, and the detailed makeup on the macho males in history text books; the cartoon flip books at math text books with dramatic emoji near the math figures... There was even stray shakespeare comments and quotes near some of them.

Some of them had comments from the other people Yamamoto had lent the books to. It looked like a tumblr page- it even got its very own peanut gallery.

When he looked twice at Yamamoto, he saw that the other was doing something that looked like a grip exercise. Noticing the questioning look, the other replied,

"Ah, this? I'm working on a training regime right now. I've gotta get much stronger than I am right now."

'Looks like someone is devoted, no, smitten with baseball. Looks like its baseball to Yamamoto, like its dolls to Tsunayoshi.' the thought, strangely enough, made him feel a slight camaraderie with the black haired teen.

'It's much lighter without any books. Might as well keep it this way for a bit...'

A couple of days later, he saw Hibari in the quiet library. Come to think of it, it was the kind of place the guy would visit, given its nature. The chairman's gray eyes fell on the title of the book and Tsuna had an urge to shut it and search for another.

"You don't need to draw the line and define boundaries."

'I'd refrain from asking you for help for investigation of the plants I need to find. I don't want to be completely reliant on you as my one and only source of information. Especially, when I know that you'd betray me instantly for your precious Namimori.'

"You don't need to look at a gift horse by its mouth. At this rate, you're no different from him."

The brunette's eyes narrowed at that. His shoulders withdrew into himself as he became defensive.

"Actually, you don't even have to do this. Why don't you look at what you actually have instead of searching for something new? After all, what's his is yours. You are him after all. Why do you try to separate yourself into separate beings?

It's even more strange, if you're the one he put his everything into. Why can't you do the same? Why can't you accept him?-"

"I can't believe you'd put us together in one box-"

"Then where would he fit?-"

"You should be asking where would I fit-"

"You are his future. You are what he became. Yamamoto is not you. His idea of Tsunayoshi is his own. It's an existence which overlaps with yours, but it doesn't have to be what you think you are.

If what you plan is what you think, you as Sawada Tsunayoshi should do, I'll lend you a hand."

Saying that, the prefect left the upset brunette behind, unbothered by the chaos whipped up by the cloud.

* * *

When Tsuna reached the mountain, he brought a doll- Amore and a bunch of miniature dolls, some made of cotton, others made of straw. He wanted to test his theories and he desperately put the words of the prefect out of mind. They were nothing but a hindrance.

He didn't need to carry any of their expectations.

He would be busy either way, since he was the only arbitrator of both of his plans.

In the hustle and bustle of the movements of the students who were rushing to set up base, his eyes tracked the cafeteria ladies who were stacking stuff up. They were preparing for a heavy dinner, knowing that the students would give a preliminary sweep over the grounds they'd be searching for treasure in.

"Tsuna, even you bore your eyes through their skull, dinner will be only later. I've got a snack you can munch on while we set up our room." Yamamoto piped up as he dragged Tsuna's head by his arm. Sasagawa Ryohei was carrying most of their load as a challenge for himself and rocketed towards their room. The three had handed over their names as a team for the trip. Luckily, they had the choice to make that, instead of being paired up by the teachers.

Those groups usually lead into chaos if the people in them didn't get along.

The boxer's speed eventually made one of their baggage fly straight into the brunette's kisser, as he lamented the fact that he let the overgrown kid off easily to do his own things. At least, he didn't feel pain.

"That was an extreme catch, Tsuna! But, doesn't your face hurt?" if Tsuna felt pain, he would probably let him know that he had beaten Hibari's tonfas at something at least.

Yamamoto tried to get some of the luggage from the guy after that, but the boxer was having none of it. So, the brunette grumbled out an excuse for the jock- he didn't need another person who knew he was a doll right now.

"Yamamoto justs wants to have the race to our room on even grounds."- this worked like a charm. But the Kyoko-Hana pair that heard his statement put their luggage in his hand, as Hana piped up,

"Oh is that so, Sawada? In that case, you should take our baggages so that the number is equal for all of you. You're getting no handicap.

I'll let Kyoko's oniichan know about the time you take to reach our room, so that you guys can see who won out of you three."

If Tsuna could frown, he would whine like a dying seal at the prospect of running to their room and running back from there to his actual room...

The brunette did join the two on the mountain walk later on, but he strayed from the group (which was quite the easy task given their nature) and moved towards picking the most dangerous of herbs he could sight. He then crushed them into powder, and slipped into the deserted cafeteria to lace a small vessel filled with food with an handful of the powder and sap.

He then stuck the dolls under the tables, intending on retrieving them later, to erase evidence. At least, these were disposable. He ignored the eyes that he felt were on him during the whole event.

Tsuna reunited with the two teens later who were covered in dirt and grass. Yamamoto had an odd smile as he shoved the basket full of mushrooms in front of him.

"I was lucky to find these many, but it looks like you weren't able to find as many." his voice had an oddly accusatory tone in his words. He continued with that tone seemingly vanishing into thin air,

"Well, at least I found these many."

"Hahaha! Yamamoto! I've got thrice as much as you've got! So I win this round!" the boxer shouted proudly as the two looked at his rainbow-colored harvest and Tsuna wondered how many of them were actually usable.

"You shouldn't have dawdled too much! You could have collected way more that way." he admonished with his loot that could possibly make their botany teacher jealous at the variety he collected. Chances are, there was something rare inside that mini mountain he heaped up.

"Guess I got a bit sidetracked, huh? ahaha."

The cafeteria was filled with hungry little ghouls that were evolved from the teens who spent the entire evening fueled with greed and a sense of adventure — or filled with the unfortunate souls that were dragged along by their friends' hype.

Tsuna easily avoided the spiked meal option and tracked the few who chose that particular dish. If it goes really well; the remaining part of the trip would be too chaotic to continue or maybe, just maybe, they'd continue it to save face.

He saw faces turn slightly into that of discomfort, and thought that it was only a matter of fact. So later into the night, away from prying eyes, he collected the dolls and threw them into a campfire someone from their class lit to 'fit the atmosphere of their camps' and disposed of evidence.

The next day, a furious Nedzu gathered them up, which surprised the brunette.

'I can't believe he would directly address us if something went horribly wrong. Wasn't he the type to shift the blame and try to put dirt all over a bad situation to cover things up?'

"Ok, if the one who put laxatives into yesterday's meal better 'fess up! Else I won't go easy on you if I catch you.

This kind of thing is bad, even if you intended it on being a prank! You hear me!? This kind of stuff is not something to laugh over!" the teacher was red with anger, ready to burst a couple of fuses.

The students looked slightly amused at the daredevil's antics, as Yamamoto whispered into Tsuna's ears,

"It seems like someone could have picked some of the plants from the mountain and mixed it with the food as a practical prank.

It's ok that they seemed to be not poisonous enough to do bad damage, but the botany teacher is freaking out over the possibilities. And Nedzu's caught his paranoia..."

'Oh... That's too bad. I thought those would be effective enough. Looks like it's plan B'

The jock looked straight at the slight sigh that the brunette gave out, but he didn't say anything.

Before he finally decided to follow up his words with something, Sasagawa moved into Yamamoto's line of sight with just fury, as he said,

"Yamamoto, come with me! Let's find the guy who pulled this. What if it was Kyoko and Hanan who ended eating that!

That guy was so not extremely cool! I can't let things be this way, even if Nedzu's fine with letting the guy off with a scolding!" and he dragged the other off with him.

* * *

Tsuna smiled slightly in gratefulness at the other's intervention and moved towards the mountain and to a small, unstable cave. He first planted Amore inside the walls and dug a hole to the outside from its cavity. He then placed a wireless audio transmitter in a corner that a person could not find if he just blindly felt around the place. He then took a pickaxe that he packed for the trip and dislodged the rocks at the entrance.

He then made the slope slightly slippery and staked nearby with an audio recording of a wild animal growling.

When he saw a small team of two looking around nervously, he played the recording and rustled the grass. The terrified two split and started running away from the supposed beast.

Tsuna chased the more scared one of the couple from the bushes, leading the other like a pied piper to the slippery slope.

When the other slipped, the impact was enough to send the loose rocks tumbling downwards to seal the frightened teen inside the dark cave with the glowing Amore.

The teen wouldn't destroy the one thing that gave light, even if it was stuck in place. The brunette would even reward him if he treated his new body properly.

If he targeted the female, the people would have made an even bigger fuss than if it was the guy who got lost. If it was the girl, she might have been more susceptible to trusting the doll as the only source of light and survival; and less likely to destroy it. The guy looked and behaved less aggressively, so he felt that he was ok to target, hopefully, his judgement was right.

If not, he would increase the vibration of the transmitter to bury him underground and lure a girl instead, regardless of the consequence.

That day, the adults looked tense as they tried to arrange a search team to find the lost student. The students were relatively unconcerned as they were kept in the dark with their reassurances.

The next day, they were warned to go easy with the exploring and go in groups to prevent more students from getting lost.

Tsuna decided to organize his days for the week to stagger the times for his visit to the lad to feed and provide him drinks, to avoid suspicion. With Yamamoto away on a wild goose chase with Sasagawa-kun, he was free to become as much of a shadow as he pleased.

He placed the closed package of food and water without any labels to associate it with the cafeteria and shoved it through Amore to push them through the cave. This way, with only Amore as the most important source of survival for the boy, the doll would be significant enough to haunt his thoughts...

The brunette heard all the signs of life that the other sported through rasping breaths, curses, screams, whispers, surprised gasps at the food, stomach grumbles and others.

Something made him hesitate a bit hearing those sounds, the sounds that begged for survival. The ones he made, he remembered making...

But he prepared so much for this... How could he just stop now? What about Tsunayoshi?

He couldn't turn tail now, he had to will it through! Either way, this was Tsunayoshi's cowardice, not his. That guy didn't know what was good for him. He knew. That's why he was the Magnum Opus, not his creator!

In the last three days, he heard his victims words and breaths as a whisp of the wind. It seemed like he was staking near the doll- down to his final moments.

But somehow, that was the trigger that made Tsuna's doll joints tremble in intense regret. Would Amore hate him for doing this to him? The boy was her companion in his last moments. Would she feel the despair that he did in that starry night?

But he was as desperate as she would be in this situation. It was something that seemed like a cycle that would perpetuate with new victims and new perpetrators for every loss.

The next day, the search team finally spotted the cave with a dirty doll that did not move and a rotting corpse in the stage of rigor mortis. Tsuna remembered seeing the condition it was due to the damp nature of the cave.

He remembered the shrieks of the curious souls that tailed the team to the cave as they saw nature do its work to integrate the living with itself in the form of the cave's tiny inhabitants.

He remembered the crushed look that Yamamoto sported, the broken look he gave him a beat later.

The students accused the teachers for not bringing Hibari along. They claimed that the prefect would have prevented a tragedy like this and the laxative incident from ever happening. They whispered this amongst themselves, mimicking the thoughts that the teachers themselves had. Despite Hibari's method of handling things, he was good at his job.

This was going just as he intended. He paid Hibari back for his help, and saw how his experiment went this time.

Would he have felt better if the doll was alive from the ordeal?


	7. The raging of a calm storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess with the last chapter, the story got quite grim, huh? Well, it ain't over yet ahahaha...  
> Welcome to Fon's PoV. There's only Irie's part left, huh?
> 
> Hope you like the story so far, let me know of your ideas or suggestions or comments on it. It'll be much appreciated hehe. I kinda want to know what you think about the story so far. It's my curiosity talking ehe~
> 
> Ok, let's get on with it- It's show time! (๑✪ᆺ✪๑)

Tsuna was quiet among the hustle and bustle created by the excited students who had seen quite the sight during the trip. He looked at Yamamoto who looked slightly lost, but also seemed to be dead set on avoiding meeting his eyes.

His classmates seemed to reach a consensus to visit the Namimori shrine when reaching back to cleanse themselves of whatever haunted their trip to make it go awry like that. At the very least, it could put their mind at ease, since there was nothing else they could do about the situation.

They were not to investigate the scene that seemed like a site for diseases because of the lack of disinfection. They were also put into surveillance under the teachers to remain calm and not kick up a fuss. They were not let in on what the detectives found from the site, instead, they were offered a single explanation-

"It was an accident. The pair was chased by a wild animal and one of them ran into the unstable cave which collapsed on itself. With no food or water, he died of thirst and hunger- with the unhygienic conditions from the cave."

Tsuna had removed any wrappers and retrieved the doll by then. It was somewhat simple since their eyes simply could not leave the desecrate figure alone. The panicking students effectively hogged the attention of the supervisors and gave him space and time to maneuver around.

When the bus stopped in the bus stop, Yamamoto finally looked at the descending Tsuna and spoke, his voice laced with spite-

"Tsuna, you might want to get back to your house instead. If you head over to the shrine, you'd be mistaken as an evil spirit and cleansed by the shrine's deity."

His classmates snickered amongst themselves, easily agreeing to the notion of Tsuna's very existence leading to their misfortune. Well, in a certain sense, they weren't wrong.

Tsuna looked at the figures who looked like they were put in a fisheye lens with how warped they looked, how their warped self seemed to form a rift between them.

He was feeling slightly light-headed from the whole ordeal. It was like reality was laughing at him, Amore feeling heavy in his bag. He felt like if he pushed his hand in that, fur would detach itself from its body, then crawl and wriggle over his skin.

It would turn as sharp as needles and prick his skin, accusing him of treating it worse than Tsunayoshi did, given that they were comrades and soulmates inside that small room.

Tsuna felt that at this moment, he understood why Tsunayoshi felt like the silent dolls were much better company than anything in the world.

There were people who glared at him sharply after Yamamoto's words. It was Mochida Kensuke's best friends- or former best friends. It seemed like the jock's words flipped a switch.

The brunette quietly nodded and left the scene, his footsteps were too brisk for his tastes, too loud for his ears; only adding to the cacophony of human voices. It was all noise, and it made his blood boil making him desperate for more personal space.

* * *

Fon sat in the DC committee room, his unimpressed eyes glaring at his nephew. It was an unpleasant surprise to come back to Namimori, only to see that there was a chameleon donning his personal acquaintance's skin; it then proceeded to commit homicide aided by the one person he pegged as a stickler for maintaining peace; and then proceeded to go to a trip without said person- clearly aiming to propagate more chaos.

"This is the calmest I've seen you be in my presence."

Kyoya was sipping tea while sitting lackadaisically on his armchair. Usually, his mere appearance would ruffle his feathers- so much so that his visits to Namimori required him being in disguise at all times- because the disturbed Kyoya had no qualms of letting the other know just how unwelcome his existence was.

"To get straight to the point, you can't just keep indulging that thing. It would only want more.

It's already the shell, a husk of what Tsunayoshi-kun was."

"It has all the functionalities that a human should have, and whatever it lacks is what Tsunayoshi deemed unnecessary for him. Essentially, it was him evolving to a better form, losing his vestigial features.

I see no reason not to let the baby carnivore grow into his new skin."

"Maybe you accept his creation as his new form because it's aligned closer to what you wanted him to do when he was being harassed by those people.

I don't think that this is what Tsunayoshi would have wished for. It's not in his nature."

"That's just what you expect from him. He was far too bruised to heal enough to think of the possibility to take what was rightfully his and teach them to never to mess with him."

"I do not have to be in his mind to understand his actions and feelings. If I had to do just that, people wouldn't even need to communicate- if it was so pointless.

You're just trying to corner him so that he can only take that one path.

You know how dangerous people who belong to the triads are. You even reject me for being a part of that-"

he ignored the growl his nephew made from that and pressed on,

"You can't go back after having blood in your hands. It's not strength to wield power to take someone's life."

"That's rich, coming from you."

"That's why I hope you won't let him have his way. That child chose to be blind to protect himself. Why would you make his first sight a blood bath?"

"That was his decision. I didn't influence him the slightest."

"You might as well, especially since you had the power to stop him in his tracks.

The Tsunayoshi-kun that I know would be far too pained by his actions when it's directed at someone else. He feels like it was him as a doll maker that attracted the fascination of people.

It was just his growth, what he was as a person at that time which brought people close to him. But he thinks that his one identity, discounting his personality or his experiences or his behavior and such was the one solely responsible for the people who were his potential friends.

Even though he could stretch that logic to his beloved dolls- he treated them differently-"

"It sounds like you have a grudge against him."

"I'm just frustrated that things are going this way. What is he to you Kyouya? Your doll to dress up?"

Hibari's eyes glared at him darkly, daring him to add something to that line of thought. Fon sighed, but continued,

"It's fine to give a person you consider freedom to test new things... But shouldn't you also help him out if you think he is straying from his path?

Are you just going to observe? Do you think he'd be fine regardless of whatever he'd try out?

Some choices are nothing but painful. They just lead to misery.

And this is one of them. Think about it a bit, Kyoya."

Fon got up from his seat and left through the window.

* * *

_Fon, being an expert martial artist saw the Arcobaleno's curse for what it truly was. His cherubic cheeks and now tiny frame gave him the freedom to change his disguise to any form of any height, given his baby figure. His fists and skills were far more powerful than it had previously been._

_It was like he doped to receive the level of strength achieved by being the Storm Arcobaleno- his limits were removed._

_But, at the same time his strength was broadcasting its magnificent brilliance to the world and he'd have to forcibly seal every single thread that leaked into the world to keep his peace. There was a bunch of tactical advantages that he'd lose for being so overt and showy, like the chance to observe his surroundings without notice, to sneak out of unwanted situations or to not intimidate organizations and individuals so strongly._

_You see, even if its flies that circle and swarm around a predator- they can cow a beast by sheer persistence. Or even, if attacked strongly enough, they can make them flee the scene from sheer annoyance. They were small and almost unending in number, difficult to aim at and tiring to eliminate. There were countless strategies that cowards could use against the strong- like stealing kills, retreating and reorganizing, trapping, poisoning and weakening, attacking them when they're defenseless..._

_Fon was familiar with the tactics that the triads employed against him, and it only grew stronger and more frequent when he became an Arcobaleno._

_It needed him to constantly stuff his new power away- power that leaked away in droves. It was power that he felt was the compressed form of what he was capable of in the present and in the far future and it made him feel like it was a tap that was emptying the tank that represented his life._

_His hypothesis only actualized a bit later, when the dear companions that accompanied him through the trials saw their beloved Luce succumb to the curse- only for that noose to be passed on to her daughter, Aria._

_They had such dark faces on, that Aria could not help but don one of carefreeness to soothe them from the knowledge of their impending doom, and she was on the fast lane._

_The six scattered off to search the vast corners of the world to find Checkerface or a cure._

_The news made him feel out of sorts enough to seek refuge in Japan, Namimori- home to his nephew, and land of quiet and peace. Maybe that was thanks to his nephew's efforts._

_He wore a purple mandarin coat with dark sunglasses around the maneuverable exoskeleton to rest for a while to gather his bearings._

_His 'allies' were trying to keep distance from him to avoid making themselves into targets. His proteges, like Ipin, were kept at distance to avoid being caught in the crossfire. His 'family' scorned him for being caught in this sticky situation, and his nephew would **definitely not be pleased**_   _to_   _find him in Namimori._

_The Arcobaleno were off on something that could amount to nothing but a wild goose chase. Maybe it wasn't right for Fon to be this defeatist right off the bat but after Luce's death and Aria's establishment as the new sky Arcobaleno..._

_He remembered the look of Gamma, the one he gave Aria, the one that showed that he would hang all the stars into the sky for her. The soft huff Aria would give the man back like she didn't know what she would do for the helpless man._

_He remembered the hardened look of the hitman, the strongest man he'd ever known, the one that showed that he'd been gritting his teeth to simply accept what would inevitably happen._

_He was then snapped out of his memories by eyes that stared right at him. It made sense if the child was wary of the strange man in the depths of an alley._

_It was these auburn eyes that seemingly stayed right on his figure for days on end._

_Finally, the child did something other than gawk at him. It was the loud sound of footsteps that set the boy to action._

_He didn't run away from the strange man, but ran towards him, to his greatest surprise, and hid in his noodle cart- the final accessory to his disguise._

_The civilian seemed to be leading a life similar to his very own, as there were children with hateful eyes that scoured the area for his lithe figure before resuming their chase elsewhere._

_It seemed like, whether Mafia or civilian, life was the same._

_But... why did the child choose to stay under his protection, from the man he kept that kind of gaze on?_

_The child's auburn eyes peeked up on him from the cart, with a slightly disturbed look. Maybe it was on impulse?_

_"Uncle... You've got to take better care of your business. If your cart's empty at this time of the day and at this location, you're having surplus demand but not enough supply..." the child solemnly advised him._

_It definitely caught him off guard. It seemed that the child was bothered by the lack of noodles in the hiding space, that ultimately helped the boy successfully escape his pursuers._

_Then the child walked out from the slot and moved to a partially empty trash can and hopped into it, and then proceeded to topple it to a side and roll away to safety. He had as much subtlety as Reborn had with his more outlandish disguises..._

_The next day, Fon came back from a small break to the sound of angry children, and the sight of a Sawada Tsunayoshi camping inside his cart with a couple of instant noodles. On the sight of Fon and his calm demeanor, Tsuna offered the man a cup noodle before saying,_

_"I'll replenish your stock a bit for a short stay here a day." Turns out, Fon had a profession change from a noodle seller to an innkeeper._

_Fon obliged to this slightly strange exchange by bringing in Oolong tea canisters to have tea with the noodles with the child. He had to bring cups after that, when he was slightly appalled by the lad's idea of mixing the tea with the noodles for a more convenient way to have a meal. But the idea was good enough for him to sneak in tea with the noodles, not that he'd let the brunette know that._

_It was somewhat comforting to know that, even with the way he was, he could still protect something._

_He even volunteered to wheel the brunette around to places he wanted, if he'd just give up on rolling around with trash. His nephew was getting riled up from the idea that the thorns on his side stooped to passive attacks like kicking down trashcans to oppose him. Now Fon might have justifiably earned the wrath of the prefect with the path he chose to walk in... but he wouldn't be the one to let the kid know about some of the hobbies that his citizens picked up through living in the town._

_When he came back to the town in a year later, he saw that the child stopped by his cart to leave dolls in it as a safe, to be unharmed even if the owner got hurt from the vicious chases in town._

_It first made him feel like the brunette didn't trust him anymore to keep him safe, but later he realized that it was because the child trusted him that he left the dolls in his protection. He didn't know which made him more upset._

_He left town a lot sooner than his earlier stays. It was **definitely**  because he was getting more busy with his jobs._

_The very next year, he had to hurry back to the town. His baby clothes no longer fit him. Things took such a sudden change. Aria had the six meet with her with teary eyes as she told them what happened. Her body donned her relief as she laughed breathily as she told them to not worry anymore. The curse would no longer haunt their thoughts._

_He saw the shadowed eyes of the brunette and the stark contrast from his first meeting with the child. Tsunayoshi had very casually lifted the heavy burden that was destined to plague them to their graves._

_That was their savior right there, yet why was he so scarred that he chose to run away from Aria. That he'd not risk the chance that she was there to be another source of pain and suffering, that he was so willing to label her as a threat and be done with it._

* * *

Tsuna came home, to his room- to the smell of burning plastic. It had been arson, one instigated by Mochida's friends. They had been so tense and winded up by the two incidents, that they beautifully adopted Yamamoto Takeshi's words and decided to purge the source of evil.

Tsuna's meticulous doll collection that the artisan had worked terribly hard on, enough for them to almost seem lifelike- had rubbed them the wrong way.

Not only that, Tsuna had left notes and plans with their names in his desk. They would have definitely seen that with the ransacking that they had done. It was a case of violence begetting violence.

Tsuna stared at the burning dolls in chilling silence. He was as still as a doll.

He simply watched the remaining bits of the dolls complete their combustion- alas, chemistry wouldn't have it. There was ashes that pooled around them. Rubbing alcohol lay open near his bed, his first aid boxes were wide open.

Evidence was against him, and no witnesses could catch the culprits. The brunette had rushed to his house this day, feeling an odd sort of premonition. He wanted to catch the arsonists in the act, to prevent the damage before it was done.

But that feeling of dread hampered his movements, the recent events played back as they taunted him.

Just then, his door opened as the figure of a long braided man with a striking similarity to Hibari entered his room in a quiet manner. The other spoke quietly,

"Torture, brainwashing, and strong suggestions can be used to influence someone to follow any unreasonable request. In fact, you don't even need them to think and incorporate a type of thinking with force to make them learn a behavior.

Money is a great incentive. It's one of the easiest solutions to a problem. Fact is, you could solve many of them by throwing money at them. If that doesn't work, you could simply throw more at them.

Say. Would you like to employ such methods on the children who did this? For people like me on the other side of law... we have quite a lot of ways to get away with such unscrupulous methods.

So, what would you want to do?"

The man didn't even seem to want an answer. It seemed like the darkening aura that radiated from the doll was enough of an answer for him.

Fon quietly made his way to the doll and murmured, "I see."

With that, he gently moved his fingers and grabbed the doll's hand and dislodged it from its socket.

Tsuna jerked his head towards the man in shock. But, undeterred, the martial artist continued to dismantle other parts of the doll's arms.

When the brunette finally came back to his senses, he leaped back and made an attempt to dash towards the doors.

Nana was away for grocery shopping after her meet up with her old friends. No wonder his assailants could be this bold.

The black haired adult simply kicked hard at the boy's knees, cracking the porcelain underneath and sending the doll to the floor.

There was no emotion of anger or rage on the man's face. It was like this was usual business for him.

When Tsuna attempted to speak, Fon's hands dislodged its jaw. He intended on hearing no words from the teen. It was like the practitioner needed no words from him, like as if his very existence was disregarded.

Fon didn't bother looking at the questioning and frantic shivers that the doll gave him, the wordless pleas, accusations, and attempts of reasonings that the doll would try and give him. His eyes looked at the still moving dismantled parts and wondered what he could to make them lose the signs of life.

'This sham has gone long enough. Those children have indulged this imposter in defaming and soiling his existence long enough.

This doll has done enough damage by loitering around and masquerading around as Tsunayoshi-kun. This doll has done  _quite enough_ by skinning that child and acting in his stead.'

It was the practiced movements of a professional clean up that reduced the teen to the form that the martial artist thought was best suited for him.

He finally wrapped the parts in foil after coating the parts with resin and preservatives, making Tsuna back to the doll that he truly was. Fon wouldn't give him the right to be the human that the fateful night made him ought to be.

He couldn't swap existences with their and  _his_ savior, not if he could have anything to say or do about it. Not if this was what he wanted to do with the child's will, not that the doll could ever fill in his footsteps.

Tsuna could only gaze on the burnt ashes- the remains of their little Eden, their little-boxed garden- the place of such beautifully dear memories. He was not allowed to feel disdain or spite for the perpetrators that ruined and disfigured their paradise.

The ones that claimed to be on  _his_ side would not let him take justice for his master, nor let him try to try bring things back to what they were. His master didn't deserve the things they did to him. His master didn't have to sit there and take it like a b*tch. His master was only reduced to taking that kind of action because of how they crippled him to that! Why should he be the one to let things go, if they'd do  _this_ if he stopped his rampage?! What more did they want from him?! What more will they need from him before they are satisfied?!

Why did his master say that  _he_ was his masterpiece and his ideal? The people around him wouldn't even dignify his words and actions or his existence with even a voice.

Fon looked at the new form of the doll, its most incomplete form yet with a detached look as he closed the lid to the container.

He had to find someone to remove the soul from it, so that he could lay the Tsunayoshi-kun he knew to the rest he deserved. This time, the doll would not be allowed to corrupt his master's life any longer- not in that form. That hate that engulphed the doll would be the ruin of any change that Tsuna would want for himself or for the ones he'd care for. There was only one destination for those who would willingly stain their hands in blood.

This was what he had to learn- enough to be deeply ingrained to his very bones and roots.


	8. A doll's gotta do what a doll's gotta do

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gives the strongest hint of why the fic is called Dollhouse. It ain't because of anything pretty ;)
> 
> With how I'm planning on going on with this story, I doubt you'd sympathize or empathize with Tsuna. Most probably, you'd agree with what Fon tried to do last chapter. Well, if you do agree- lemme know why. I'm curious if or why you'd appreciate this Tsuna (genuinely)
> 
> Hope you enjoy the story :)

It was so dark in here. His fingers and toes were uninhibited, but it never felt like they were there together as a whole. It was at least much better than the past.

_It made his knees numb as he tried to integrate his limbs to his torso. His hips vaguely hurt as he put them closer to each other, there was simply not enough space to let them hang loose._

_He was those children's dirty secrets, ones that they needed to stuff into chests and closets- any place small enough to reduce his small frame into one unassuming figure, one that could not provoke anyone anymore._

_He was the manifestation of their maliciousness, ones that was framed into a big painting and strongly advised by the elders to never become._

_It became so close that his school seat became too vast, and the lights of his classroom felt like spotlights. He couldn't shrink enough to fit into his natural habitat. No street corner could ever be small enough to walk into. He couldn't bear to glance at the mirror to stare at the reflection that piqued those people's ire like so._

_He could only bring himself to put the lights in his room so that he could look at the details of his dolls._

_He needed to shrink and become smaller. He needed to occupy as less of space as he could. He didn't want anyone's eyes to pass through his. But how could he, when even flies or mosquitoes with that size attracted almost a universal hate for their species?_

Funny how it turns out that even in this form, he was back to  _this_ again.

He remembered the awkward and tense look that his master sported when he tried to model him to his current look. That was the only time when Tsuna acknowledged the mirror he had in his room.

The first time the teen decided to use the mirror as a reference came as a shock to the doll. The child glanced at the mirror and stayed stunned for a minute or two and there was no recognition in his eyes. Slow trails of tears dripped down as Tsunayoshi hung his head down, unable to face that expression on his face.

There were no sobs as the teen sat still as he weathered the tears down.

Tsuna thought that he needed to rethink his current situation again. Things were different from when his master was present.

He was no longer his master's doll. They were no longer his master's dolls, now that he died and the rest of them were cremated, immolated just like him.

He was the sole survivor of their garden.

He was effectively in someone's lost and found counter and there were people looking at him, wondering if they could adopt him.

So, he couldn't act like he was Tsunayoshi's doll anymore. No one like second-hand goods, or someone else's leftovers and used goods.

He had to be their perfect make-believe character. The characters who stuck out like a sore thumb would be fired first.

'First things first, gotta make myself whole again. Then I can play along with their charades.

Even if I could talk, who was the man? How did he know about him?'

Even if he was completely immobile, there was a difference between Tsunayoshi and Tsuna.

'Regardless of what version of me existed, it seemed like I wasn't a person who the surroundings could decide to kill or let live.

But still... They could try to dismember me into dying, just like how he was cornered into leaving a will in the form of a person. But, try as they might, I'm still living and breathing.'

But the doll realized that his 'life' was a ticking time bomb right now. The stranger/abductor wasn't keen on the inheritance the former human left, and was planning on forcing resettlement- even if that meant that there would be nothing remaining in the end.

'If this guy finds some sort of ghost leaves medium solution, the body would be safe... But I doubt that he has any qualms in settling things by immolation.'

Tsuna was a sitting duck, but there was something he could use at the moment- the spirit like wisps that gave him life. The orange sky flames were free to be manipulated by him, so he decided to let it roam outside a bit and get a feel of their surroundings.

'I got to be careful, since it's not an unlimited resource- even if it can be regenerated by time.'

The sky flames couldn't touch or interact with the physical plane in his current state. It made sense since he didn't have any body part to direct the flames, thus reducing it to mere aura.

The exploration got cut soon as the wisps curled around the one thing it could touch- the storm flames of the kidnapper.

With a gasp, the casket got dropped and the case broke open with light flooding into Tsuna's vision.

The only other companion for this spectacle, Irie Shoichi looked on in abject horror, which was quite understandable, given the contents of the box. The teen only paused for a moment before heading towards the direction of the doll parts with pure impulse after giving a deafening scream in that small interval.

Fon had no choice but to retreat at that instant, given that Hibari Kyoya would come to investigate the noise source after some time.

The anxiety on Irie's face turned to shock as he looked at the joints and sockets that indicated that the lifelike doll remains was nothing but that- a stupid doll.

But, he couldn't leave it as it was- due to its striking resemblance to a friend. Irie morbidly wondered if he'd still choose to put the parts together into a whole they were actual human body parts while working on making a doll back to a human.

He looked on at the doll, as he wondered why would the brunette create a doll like himself if he hated himself so?

But then when he slipped the jaw back to its position, the moving eyeball made him tumble backward.

"Irie-san, you really helped me out there. I'm sorry that you had to be put in this situation.

I'm still Sawada Tsunayoshi, even though I look like this now. You see, I was working on a project with an embarrassing amount of passion... and I've neglected to pay my body the attention it required.

When I finally got hold of myself, I was being chopped into bits by that suspicious looking man from earlier.

...It must have been something that I must have done unconsciously during the time gap between the two events." he spoke with shyness tinting his voice, as his face morphed into one Yamamoto gave out of embarrassed gratefulness. His face looked sheepish as his body followed up on the expression to complete the body language that the doll wanted to convey.

He needed to veil his intentions and plans, and thankfully- his thoughts and his body were not in sync.

Tsuna glanced apologetically at the man who was struggling to collect his marbles at the absurd situation rolling in front of him.

The first ones to come to the scene was Yamamoto Takeshi and Sasagawa Ryohei. The boxer had decided to drag the jock out for a run since the other was moping around from the recent incident.

The jock immediately looked unwilling when he spotted the doll, but Ryohei moved towards the duo without a pause.

"What's wrong, Irie?! We heard you scream so we dashed here!"

Tsuna looked at the white-haired teen in shock. 'I didn't know that these guys knew Irie. How do they even know each other? They're from different schools.'

"You guys know each other?"

"Not the time Sawada! We've got find what was the problem first! What if it was something serious?!"

Irie's mouth flapped up and down as he wondered if words could do justice to what happened in the past 15-30 minutes. But it was like his hands had a mind of their own, as they surged forward in support of the questions that piled on top of each other in his scientific mind.

Maybe it was an influence with his peers, but he'd unconsciously treated the being in front of him as what it physically was- a doll- and proceeded to pluck the arm right out of its socket.

'Damn! What the heck is Irie doing in front of these guys?!' the brunette panicked as he briefly thought the teen in front of him was going to be the second coming of that mad stranger.

Yamamoto looked on at the scene stupefied while Ryohei had froze, his further actions thrown into the trash.

"It's not a prosthetic arm! Tsunayoshi-kun had become a doll during one of his artisan phases! I didn't even know that this kind of thing could happen or was feasible with the physical constraints of out world! Look at this!-"

the hysterical teen reached for the head and popped it right off the place.

"Irie-san?! W-what's gotten into you?!'" Tsuna shrieked as the other proceeded to act in a way that would bring the other two into a state of chaos. But Irie gave the brunette's words no mind as he babbled out what lead to the situation-

"When I found him, he was in nothing but parts. That was this really fishy old guy who dropped a case. I thought it was like one of those sick murder cases where the killer cut up their victim into pieces and kept them as a trophy!

Turns out he could be pieced back together into the living breathing person himself! What the hell is going on?!

Tsunayoshi-kun can't even recall what happened during his doll making time until that guy's freaky actions!" he clutched his head as he started mumbling out other things that didn't make sense.

"You guys didn't tell me anything, so he would have to be fine until now. But Tsunayoshi-kun says that he doesn't know what happened in this huge gap!

Then...  _who_ was it that was living as him until now?! How did he get himself turned into a doll?! I thought that the saying 'love something until you become one with that something' was not to be taken literally?!"

Yamamoto's head whipped towards the confused looking brunette who was put back together, as memories of those days flooded into him. This was too good to be true. But certainly, those things were uncharacteristic of the brunette.

His mind niggled at him, saying that this line of reasoning was fishy, but at this point- this was the best solution that could resolve all his worries. His shakey voice piped up, trying to strengthen this truth-

"Tsuna-kun... was being possessed by a very evil ghost. It probably left its host because of whatever that guy did." his voice wobbled throughout that sentence, as he slowly made his way forward towards the brunette.

Yamamoto then wrapped his arms around the brunette as he pulled the other into a tight hug, relief coloring his words.

" _I'm so glad you're back, Tsuna_ "

Tsuna felt his shoulders getting soaked wet, as his face morphed to a look of astonishment. His fingers wrapped around the jock's shoulders as he tried to support the other's weight as the teen wept into his shoulders.

Irie and Ryohei looked dumbfounded at Tsuna's physical transformation and the weakness that the jock openly displayed.

Normally, Yamamoto held back his true feelings like he was a jailor to his prison cell.

It was a gesture that seemingly awoke something that laid dormant to 'Tsuna'.

The brunette's fingers tightened, as they curled around the baseball lover's shoulders in something akin to fondness. It was a feeling that he had when he was with his master.

But now, that master was gone in flames- and like a pharaoh- he took his belongings with him to the afterworld.

So the abandoned doll looked up to figures who, if he played his cards right, could become the new family he could become a part of.

There was no need to compromise on his various little plans to get revenge on those that bullied 'Tsuna'. After all, his master was dead, but he was the one who had to live on with the memories of their actions- and had to simply sit there and watch the perpetrators roam free.

Tsunayoshi may not have the ability to give himself justice, but there was no Tsunayoshi anymore. There was only Tsuna left. And Tsuna couldn't be put into his place even if he was hacked into itty bitty bits.

Affection leaked from the brunette's stance, as he comforted the distraught Yamamoto.

'These poor, poor people had been left behind by Tsunayoshi.

Well, it was inevitable. He couldn't relax in their presence and could only think of their words and behaviors as they simply forgiving him for existing in their sight and amongst their senses.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Since he left these behind, I might as well pick them up.'

From a perspective, this intention could be looked like a delinquent picking up strays. At least, that was what was closest to the brunette's intentions.

Tsuna chose to erase the other's existence- just like what the master fantasized when creating his magnus opum. But this time, it was for a completely different reason.

The doll figured that a relation built on two parties not facing each other was ultimately fragile and worthless. It was a gap that he could easily fill and take over- so much so that Tsunayoshi would be lost from the world in the truest form.

'I would definitely appreciate them far more than he could ever.' the doll thought.

Sawada Tsunayoshi had a fiery burial. His funeral was attended by no human. After all, no one knew and no one was invited- courtesy of one doll. It would be made into reality as this gap would be treated as the blemish of one evil spirit.

'Sawada Tsunayoshi' still lived, and would keep living.

**Turns out, even if you obsessively work on one desire, it could easily throw you away. Not all love is requited. Too bad that even if the doll maker would know of the decision his treasure made and would make, he would still be his _Magnum Opus._**


End file.
